Thai chemical company invests in NatureWorks
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- Bioplastics
NatureWorks LLC has announced that Thailand’s largest chemical producer, PTT Chemical Public Company Limited (PTT Chemical), is investing US$150 million in NatureWorks. NatureWorks supplies its family of renewable Ingeo™ biopolymers made from plants to plastics and fibers markets worldwide. PTT Chemical’s investment in NatureWorks, until now wholly owned by Cargill, is subject to regulatory approval.
“The Thai Government encourages an investment in green chemicals, and particularly bioplastics, which have high growth potential in the Southeast Asian market,” says Thailand's Minister of Energy H.E. Mr. Pichai Naripthaphan. “By attracting what could be the most advanced biopolymer processing plant in the world to Thailand, PTT Chemical has made a significant step in achieving Thailand’s strategic objectives of becoming a regional hub for green technologies and solutions.”
Marc Verbruggen, president and CEO of NatureWorks, adds, “This is a significant investment by a leading chemical company, which will allow NatureWorks to continue its aggressive growth while expanding its capacity to meet global demand for bio-based products. PTT Chemical’s investment demonstrates a significant milestone in moving Ingeo bio-based plastics and fibers to the polymer mainstream.
“PTT Chemical’s investment supports NatureWorks’ intent to globalize its Ingeo manufacturing capability by building a new production facility in Thailand, supporting our Asian customer base and delivering on our commitment to renewable feedstock diversification. We anticipate bringing the new plant online in 2015 and expect to announce further details on this expansion later this year.”
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Cargill has been trying to sell Natureworks for years. Previously, they announced selling half of it to a Japanese company, which fell through. PLA is a high-priced, low physical property plastic that would lead to removing over 700 million tonnes from the world food supply, if it conquered the plastic production world - at a time when a billion people are hungry. PLA does not biodegrade in any natural environment found on earth, so I'm not surprised Cargill has been trying to sell it off. Metabolix stock is also sinking like a rock. Metabolix stock is something like 1/4 of its price that it had when it went public.
The future of biodegradable plastic is in additives that cause conventional plastics to biodegrade, at a fraction of the cost of bioplastics. See http://earthnurture.com .
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