Wacker Inaugurates Redispersible Polymer Powder Production Plant in South Korea

Wacker Chemie AG announced that after 18 months of construction work, a spray drying plant for the production of redispersible polymer powders has been officially commissioned at the production site in Ulsan, South Korea. The opening of this equipment is one of the measures taken by WACKER to expand the production base in Ulsan to further expand the production capacity of emulsion and redispersible polymer powder in Asia.

WACKER has previously produced emulsions based on vinyl acetate-ethylene copolymer (VAE) in Ulsan. The new spray drying equipment can make the emulsion into redispersible polymer powder: the liquid emulsion can be dried into fine powder immediately after being sent into the hot air flow by the atomizer. The new equipment has an annual capacity of 80,000 tons. When completed, it will also be one of the two largest production lines of its kind in the world; the other with the same capacity will be located at the WACKER Burghausen production site. The new spray drying facility can create about 50 jobs in Ulsan.

In addition to the spray dryer already built, WACKER is currently building a new VAE emulsion reactor at the Ulsan production site; VAE emulsion is a necessary raw material for the production of redispersible polymer powder. The new reactor is scheduled to be commissioned in the first quarter of 2020. WACKER has invested a total of about 65 million euros in the construction of the entire comprehensive production line covering VAE emulsions to redispersible polymer powders.