July 17, 2007

Degussa expands threonine facility in Hungary 

Press release

Degussa GmbH's Feed Additives Business Unit has expanded production capacity of L-Threonine in Kaba, Hungary.

The annual production capability of Agroferm, a fully owned subsidiary of Degussa, will be increased to 20 000 tonnes of threonine by the end of 2007. Additionally, the company will upgrade major fermentation and downstream processes to optimise plant efficiency and product design further.       

"Right from the beginning, in spring 2004, when Degussa acquired the Agroferm site from Kyowa Hakko Kogyo Co., Ltd., it was our intention to transform the former lysine production facility into a state-of-the-art L-Threonine plant," Dr Hubert Wennemer, President of Feed Additives, explained.
        

Sigmar Eisele, President of Agroferm, commented that the specific investment cost at Kaba was significantly lower "relative to the capital outlay for a greenfield plant of that size".

Dr Thomas Kaufmann, Vice-President Marketing, explained Degussa's move, "Nowadays, Europe accounts for over 50 percent of the global threonine market and provides further growth potential, especially in eastern Europe. Additionally, the relative importance of the Asian and Latin American continents is expected to rise significantly in coming years."

The Kaba site is Degussa's second state-of-the-art threonine production facility in Europe, bringing the company's total capacity to 40 000 tonnes per annum. The new threonine production line also frees up fermentation capacity to be used for production of tryptophan and other amino acids.         
 

This modular concept allows Degussa to react in a flexible manner towards increasing customer demand. Hence, the company has the technical capability to streamline its two threonine production sites further.