PANJIN, China—Cenway has completed a butyl rubber upgrade project in Panjin, Liaoning province and started production on Aug. 18.
The synthetic rubber maker set up a fully owned subsidiary, called Panjin Cenway New Materials, in Panjin last December, according to local government.
Cenway acquired butyl rubber facilities in the city, and the upgrade project took three months to complete, the official document shows.
The project has a $51 million investment and is said to have reduced production costs by 40 percent.
The unit makes polymer grade isobutylene feedstock via the dehydrogenation of t-butyl alcohol, and has adopted optimized processes developed by Beijing-Tsinghua Industrial Development Institute.
The project will generate $234 million in annual sales and boost China's self-reliance in butyl rubber, said the local authority.
The facility help build Panjin into a major hub for the petrochemical and fine chemical sectors.
Headquartered in Jiaxing, Cenway claims to be China's largest butyl rubber maker in capacity and market share with the broadest product portfolio.