Evonik has started construction of a new polyamide 12 (PA 12) facility complex at the Marl Chemical Park, Germany. The roughly €400 million investment will increase the company’s overall capacity for PA 12 by over 50 %. The project will complement existing PA 12 production at the Marl Chemical Park. The facility complex is scheduled to go on stream in the first half of 2021. In doing so, the company is concentrating its activities on high-performance materials for growth markets such as the automotive, oil and gas, 3D printing, and optics industries.

As part of the reorganization process, Evonik will withdraw entirely from the polyphthalamide (PPA) business at the site in Witten, Germany, by the end of the first quarter of 2020. PPA is synthetic nylon used in high-temperature applications. The nearly 300 employees from the PPA plant will be transferred to the Marl site.

At the same time, Evonik will also be expanding production of transparent polyamides in Marl. Production expansion is scheduled for completion in the first quarter of 2020. The change will double the overall capacity for the high-performance material.

• Evonik Industries AG, Essen, Germany