A new era beckons for Lucite: building up to commercialization of novel MMA Technology.(companies)

Lucite International (Southampton, U.K.), the biggest producer of methyl methacrylate (MMA), is on the threshold of what promises to be the most dynamic phase in its history. The company is preparing to start up the first commercial-scale plant based on Alpha technology--a proprietary process that Lucite says has the potential to revolutionize the MMA industry's cost base. Alpha has significant advantages over traditional technologies, and those advantages have been heightened by the run-up in petrochemical feedstock costs over the past year, Lucite says. The new plant is being built at Jurong Island, Singapore to supply customers in Asia, where MMA demand is growing most rapidly. "It will be the lowest cost plant in the world and very close to where the market requirements are," says Lucite CEO Ian Lambert.

Locating the plant in Asia will also establish a geographical balance in Lucite's business with about one-third of revenues in each of the main chemical-consuming regions. Lucite currently has an estimated 25% share of the MMA market, and it is a major manufacturer of downstream acrylic products such as polymer, resin, and sheet. Lucite reported 2007 sales of 849 million [pounds sterling] ($1.7 billion).

The Singapore Alpha plant will have capacity for 120,000 m.t./year of MMA. The facility is almost mechanically complete but is not scheduled to enter production until the fourth quarter. "We've allowed ourselves a generous period to take it through the whole testing process," Lambert says. The Singapore project is …