US Kraton Forms Joint Venture with Formosa Petrochemical

Kraton Performance Polymers Inc. and Formosa Petrochemical Co., Ltd. are jointly establishing a styrene block copolymer production plant in Maitai, Taiwan.

The Kraton Company, headquartered in Houston, United States, issued a press release this month that this factory with an annual capacity of 30,000 tons will cost 165 to 200 million U.S. dollars, scheduled to be put into operation in the second half of 2013. The new plant will use Kraton's proprietary polymerization technology, which will produce high value-added polymer grade materials. Kraton will be responsible for the sales of all products produced by the plant.

Kevin Fogarty, president and CEO of Kraton, said that the 50%-owned factory will probably become the first step in establishing a long-term cooperative relationship with Formosa Petrochemical and leave space for future capacity expansion.