Borealis completes €35 mln upgrade at Borstar PP facility in Schwechat

23-Jun-09

Borealis has completed upgrade of its 300,000 tpa Borstar polypropylene (PP) production facility in Schwechat, Austria at an investment outlay of €35 mln. To meet the growing demand for PP, it has invested in an additional gas phase reactor, which will enable the firm to produce materials tailored to specific processing requirements. The start-up of the additional gas phase reactor at Schwechat will enhance its ability to produce superior high flow materials for the automotive and packaging sectors. The addition of a third gas phase reactor will ensure that the products based on Borealis‘ proprietary multi-modal Borstar technology are fully bimodal. Bimodality allows Borealis to tailor each product‘s characteristics precisely to achieve specific performance and processing benefits. The addition of bimodality throughout the manufacturing process at Schwechat will allow antagonistic properties to be combined in one material or the inclusion of different properties that together deliver the enhanced performance required by innovative automotive and thin wall food packaging applications. For the automotive sector, the high flow PP materials will offer Tier One suppliers and OEMs the potential to raise productivity of consistent quality parts with narrow gap tolerances or improved stiffness/impact resistance benefits. Converters of thin wall packaging will be able to improve their manufacturing cost-efficiency. At the same time as allowing line speeds to be increased, the superior high flow materials enable a reduction in both material and energy usage without compromising on such performance features as crack resistance, transparency and sealability.