January 21, 2008

Adisseo to build new methionine plant in China

Adisseo announced its plans to construct a new methionine production site in China due to anticipated growth in the global demand for methionine, an essential amino acid for poultry feed.

Initially, the unit will have a capacity of 70,000 tonnes every year and will be designed to double the current capacity and to satisfy the increasing market demand.

Gerard Deman, chief executive officer of Adisseo, said that the new plant should be operational by 2011, just when the current production units will no longer be enough to meet the burgeoning need for methionine.

The company sees demand to be strongest in China and other Asian countries, which are projected to account for more than half of the global growth of the methionine market over the next decade.

The new plant will be located near Tianjin, one of the China's major ports, which will optimize the supply chain for the entire Asian continent, the company said.

In 2006, Adisseo was acquired by China National BlueStar (Group) Corporation which marked the first acquisition made by China's chemical industry and was the largest investment China made in France.

China National BlueStar (Group) Corporation is a wholly owned subsidiary of the China National Chemical Group Corporation (CNCC).

Adisseo Group is a major animal nutritional feed firm specialising in methionine, vitamin and biological enzymes.

The French firm is owned by the British CVC Group and is currently the only producer offering methionine in both powder and liquid form and is the world's second largest methionine producer, accounting for 29 percent of the global market in 2004.