August 3, 2012

 

Germany's Evonik invests US$760 million in amino acid plant in Singapore

German firm Evonik Industries will invest more than EUR500 million (about US$760 million) in a plant producing amino acid for animal feed.

 

It is the company's biggest single investment to date and plans are in the pipeline to further expand its operations in Singapore. Minister for Trade and Industry Lim Hng Kiang was on hand when Evonik broke ground on Thursday for the facility at Jurong Island.

 

The plant is set to open in the third quarter of 2014 and is expected to create over 200 jobs in engineering and technology. When completed, the facility can produce 150,000 tonnes of methionine, an additive for livestock and poultry feed, every year.

 

The new plant will expand Evonik's capacity to 580,000 tonnes annually. Evonik's methionine is sold under the brand name MetAMINO. The company has operated an oil additives production plant on Jurong Island since 2008.

 

Evonik is now eyeing markets in China, India and Southeast Asia, where it sees a growing emphasis on health and nutrition. The company says its operation in Singapore is key to this strategy.

 

Klaus Engel, chairman of Evonik's executive board, said, "We have quite some experience on Jurong Island already with our oil additives business ... and we plan to also add a polyamide-12 plant later on to come on stream in 2014.

 

"All in all, our plans include not less than EUR2 billion (US$2.4 billion) overall for Asia in the next years to come, and that will result in the doubling of our Asian sales to EUR4 billion (US$4.9 billion) by 2015."

 

By 2020, Evonik hopes to generate 30% of its revenue from Asia, with plans to add 2,000 new employees in the region. Evonik saw a 9% sales increase to EUR14.5 billion (US$18 billion) in 2011. Asia's contribution to overall sales was about 20%.

 

The methionine plant in Singapore is Evonik's first in Asia and also its largest. It has four other plants in Germany, US and Belgium.

 

Minister Lim, who was the guest-of-honour at the event, said the chemicals industry contributes one-third to Singapore's manufacturing output. He said about 100 global chemical firms have set up operations in Jurong Island and they have invested over US$40 billion into their facilities.

 

Lim added that over three-quarters of jobs in the chemicals industry are taken up by locals. These jobs also offer one of the highest-paying salaries in the manufacturing sector, he said.

 

So far, Singapore has earmarked US$16.1 billion between 2011-15 to encourage innovation in research and development. This is also expected to provide support for the chemicals industry.