Global petrochemicals producer Oxea is to raise its European production capacity of dioctyl terephthalate (DOTP), a general-purpose plasticizer, by 50,000 mt/year by the fourth quarter of 2015, it said Monday.
Oxea has signed a memorandum of understanding with an unidentified third party for the joint production of DOTP, citing rising demand for environmentally friendly plasticizers such as DOTP and diisononyl phthalate (DINP).
"The European market for phthalate-free plasticizers is growing rapidly. As a replacement mainly for DOP and DINP, DOTP is benefiting particularly from this development and our capacities need to be planned correspondingly," said Christian Boehmer, Oxea's project leader.
The move also reflected a structural move away from traditional plasticizers like dioctyl phthalate which is likely to be phased out by February 2015 under the EU Reach program, the company said.
The announcement came amid the latest round of rationalization in the European DOP market including the closure of Arkema's Chauny plant in France which will cease all operations by the end of March.
Plants which continue to produce DOP in Europe include Poland's ZAK which operates a 60,000 mt/year DOP plant in Kedzierzyn-Kozle, Deza's 50,000 mt/year plant in Valasske Mezirici, Czech Republic, and Polynt's 70,000 mt/year plant in San Giocanni, Italy.
DOTP is a general-purpose plasticizer used in a range of applications such as automotive, construction and flooring, and uses the same raw material as rival product DOP, 2-ethylhexanol.
