| |
“We are delighted that Lanxess has chosen Singapore as the site for their first Butyl Rubber manufacturing plant in Asia. This is very strong vote of confidence from Lanxess as it is their single largest investment to-date. The plant is in-line with Singapore’s strategic plan to move our chemicals industry towards higher value-added downstream activities - beyond commodities into specialties. Singapore's chemicals industry is poised for the next phase of robust growth and sustainable development, and we look forward to achieving this with key partners such as Lanxess,"
Ms Aw Kah Peng,
Assistant Managing Director,
Industry Development
Singapore Economic Development Board.
REMARKS BY MS AW KAH PENG, ASSISTANT MANAGING DIRECTOR, INDUSTRY DEVELOPMENT, SINGAPORE ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT BOARD AT LANXESS’S PRESS CONFERENCE ON TUESDAY, 26 FEBRUARY 2008
A very good morning
Dr Heitmann, Chairman Board of Management
Dr Werner Breuers, Member of the Board of Management
Ladies and Gentlemen
1. I am delighted to be here this morning for the announcement of Lanxess’s decision to build a Butyl Rubber Facility on Jurong Island. Singapore warmly welcomes this investment.
2. Lanxess is no stranger to Singapore. Your presence here dates back over 35 years. With Lanxess’s independence and own strong unique identity today, this presence has created new opportunities for growth such as the Butyl Rubber Project.
Significance of Lanxess’ Investment to Singapore
3. Although our relationship with Lanxess extends well over 3 decades, we are very excited with the announcement this morning. This announcement is groundbreaking on many fronts. As you have heard from Dr Heitmann, it is the first manufacturing investment in Singapore by Lanxess. And it is also the single largest investment in Lanxess’s history. We thank Lanxess for this strong vote of confidence.
Strategic fit in Singapore’s Chemicals Industry
4. Singapore’s Chemical Industry has come a long way from its humble beginnings in the 1960s, when we started off with oil refining. To diversify our industrial mix and bring more further value add from our existing base of refineries, we brought about our first petrochemical complex in the early 80s, which incidentally, was also the first such complex in South East Asia.
5. Over the last decade, the industry has seen unprecedented transformation and growth. Today, the output from the Chemicals Cluster stands at S$82 billion. The Chemicals cluster has surpassed Electronics as the largest contributor to Singapore’s manufacturing output at close to 34%. The outlook is promising, with even stronger growth expected over the next 10 years. When the new crackers of ExxonMobil and Shell, both of which are currently under construction, come on stream fully by 2011, Singapore’s total ethylene output will double to around 4 million tons per annum. While crackers produce a varied slate of petrochemical materials, ethylene output is commonly used as a lead indicator of the size and potential value add of the industry.
6. Hence, this present wave of expansions in ethylene output will allow Singapore’s chemical industry to move a big step forward already in terms of value add. This is possible because new chemistry chains are being introduced downstream, resulting in the production of more specialty and higher value chemicals and polymers. Lanxess’s project is a superb demonstration of that, our strategic intent to further extend the higher olefins chemistry chains on Jurong Island. This is an important part of our efforts to distinguish Singapore and sustain our competitive advantage, particularly vis-a-viz emerging petrochemical hubs such as those located in the Middle-East, China and India.
Technology and high value-added manufacturing
7. Integration has been and will continue to be vital to our success in Chemicals. However beyond integration, we believe that Technology and Innovation will further set us apart. Technology and Innovation are critical enablers for us to continually evolve to meet ever changing market needs.
8. Let me use Butyl Rubber as an example to illustrate this. In the 1860s, there was a huge demand for rubber, which led to many efforts by scientists to synthesize rubber in the laboratory. It was only over 70 years later, during World War I that German chemists managed to polymerize dimethylbutadiene. However, this elastomer had limited uses due to its properties. Around 1930 American chemist Wallace Hume Carothers and German scientist Hermann Staudinger managed to develop the scientific basis for polymer chemistry. This contributed to present-day knowledge on polymers. Following that milestone development, other synthetic rubbers such as butyl rubber and butadiene rubber were invented. Of course, as you have heard from Dr Heitmann, Lanxess stood at the heart of many of these developments.
9. Today, the process of producing butyl rubber is technologically sophisticated and state-of-the-art, producing high quality specialty elastomers for key growth industries such as the Automotive Industry.
10. This demonstrates clearly that to remain relevant and cutting-edge, innovation and technology are required. But how do you get there? The answer lies in developing a sound education system and attracting the best talent. Both of which are key strengths of Singapore.
11. We believe that that together with our strong intellectual property protection regime, excellent infrastructure and connectivity and stability led to the decision for Lanxess to expand its presence in Singapore.
Closing
12. In closing, please allow me to extend our most sincere congratulations to the management and staff of Lanxess on this exciting announcement. This project will pave the way for a strengthened Lanxess-Singapore partnership. We look forward to an even closer collaboration with Lanxess in Energizing Chemistry in the years ahead. We will continue to strive to provide the best conditions for Lanxess to implement this project on schedule and reap maximum benefits from your investment on Jurong Island.
13. I wish you every success on this endeavor. Thank You. |
|  |
|
