SHANGHAI \u2014 NatureWorks LLC will make a decision about the location of its second plant by the end of this year.<\/p>\n
Speaking at the China International Biobased Technology & Partnering Conference in Shanghai, Asia-Pacific commercial director Richard Weber said Thailand is the preferred location, but an unstable government there still leaves the decision up in the air.<\/p>\n
\u201c[Thailand] has been our preferred location but we haven\u2019t necessarily purchased or leased the land effectively. The final decision still hasn\u2019t been made,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Early on in the interview he did refer to the plant as \u201cour Thai plant,\u201d and later in the day he was seen lunching with Thail Bioplastics Industry Association President Pipat Weerathaworn. But in Weerathaworn\u2019s presentation, he expressed hope \u2014 but not certainty \u2014 that Minnetonka, Minn.-based NatureWorks would indeed locate a plant there.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Thai government is very interested in building this bio-based economy,\u201d Weber said, pointing out that Thailand is a major exporter of sugar cane and cassava.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re really interested in, rather than just exporting the raw materials, converting [them] into a valuated product like our Ingeo [polylactic acid resin],\u201d Weber said.<\/p>\n
But both Weerathaworn and Weber alluded to Thailand\u2019s unstable government as a challenge for cooperation.<\/p>\n
\u201cHowever without the government in place they haven\u2019t been able to put through the final incentive packages that were on the docket, which would be helpful to our second plant. It hasn\u2019t impacted it [our decision] yet, and Thailand remains our preferred location, but it is something that we are closely monitoring and working on with the government through one of our parent companies,\u201d Weber said.<\/p>\n
On May 22, the Thai military took control of the country from its elected government, the second coup in the country in the past decade. The military action took place after months of protests in the capital of Bangkok and other major cities.<\/p>\n
Weber added that other options for NatureWorks would be Malaysia or Singapore.<\/p>\n
The new plant is currently in detailed engineering stage, said Weber. He estimated it will start operating around 2016.<\/p>\n
Capacity details have not been made public. NatureWorks\u2019 current manufacturing plant in the United States has a capacity of 150,000 metric tons (350 million pounds) per year, and the new factory will either be 150,000 or 75,000 metric tons, he said.<\/p>\n
NatureWorks anticipates plans for a third plant around 2020.<\/p>\n
NatureWorks hit their 1 billion pound total aggregate sales target last year, Weber said. \u201cBy hitting this milestone figure we believe it shows PLA has proven it can play a significant role in the plastics market, and there fore the next goal for the industry is to get to 1 billion pounds a year.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cOne thing that we think would also be key to having the industry take off is if there was additional commercial suppliers in the marketplace,\u201d he said. \u201cToday, the only real commercial supplier is NatureWorks, with one plant.\u201d<\/p>\n
He added that the company welcomes competition and is even trying to help create it.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are actively looking for partnerships or licensing opportunities to create credible competition,\u201d he said. \u201cThe key to unlocking the potential for PLA business is competition [from] multiple commercial suppliers [so that companies] can feel comfortable switching significant portions of their portfolio to a new product,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Weber said the company has matured over the years in its thinking about the prospects of bioplastics.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe know that what actually gets the sale or drives significant demand is going to be the price and performance. You can\u2019t just rely on selling the green concept,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cBefore we were green, green, green.\u201d Now the company knows that \u201cwe can compete with polystyrene in North America, and increasingly the rest of the world as styrene prices continue to escalate and that\u2019s what\u2019s going to cause PLA to take off,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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