Trinseo Plans Construction of New S-SBR Pilot Plant in Schkopau, Germany

At a glance

Trinseo, a global materials company, has announced plans to build a new pilot plant in Germany for its Synthetic Rubber Business. The plant will produce Solution-Styrene Butadiene Rubber (S-SBR), which is used in the production of performance tires. The pilot plant will allow for more efficient use of Trinseo's production facilities and speed up innovation in the performance tire market. It will also enable faster testing and evaluation of new S-SBR formulations, helping to accelerate the time to market for new tire innovations. The plant is expected to begin operation in Q4 2017.

HORGEN, Switzerland - Trinseo (NYSE: TSE). The global materials company and manufacturer of plastics, latex binders and synthetic rubber, announced today its plans for a new S-SBR (Solution-Styrene Butadiene Rubber) pilot plant in Schkopau, Germany for the Company’s Synthetic Rubber Business. The S-SBR pilot plant will allow for more efficient use of Trinseo’s production facilities and help speed up innovation in the Performance Tires market. The pilot plant will begin operation in Q4 2017.

Trinseo’s new S-SBR pilot plant will quicken the development process from lab sample to commercialization. The pilot plant will also deliver sufficient quantities of new S-SBR formulations required for real-life tire testing. This speedy evaluation of both process and product parameters meets customer needs for reducing product validation time. As a result, the faster testing process accelerates the time to market for new performance tire innovations.

“The pilot plant demonstrates our long-standing commitment to and collaboration with our customers and is consistent with Trinseo’s strategy to grow our Performance Materials businesses,” said Hayati Yarkadas, Senior Vice President and Business President, Performance Materials.

“This strategic investment will allow us to be more agile and flexible than ever before in our ability to turn around S-SBR product testing,” said Samer Al Jabi, Global Business Director for Synthetic Rubber. “The pilot plant will be a valuable technology capability, enabling us to bring S-SBR materials to our customers more efficiently and help performance tire makers meet new market trends.”