Muscat – OQ Chemicals – a global chemicals manufacturer and member of OQ Group – and its partner Röhm International announced the laying of the foundation stone for a new world-scale plant to produce methyl methacrylate in Bay City, Texas, US.

The plant has a production capacity of about 250,000 metric tonnes of methacrylate per year. The project is expected to be completed in 2024.

This comes within the framework of the efforts made by OQ Group to enhance its investments, expand in foreign markets, and establish investment partnerships with international companies. OQ Group, which is present in 17 countries of the world, exports its products to more than 70 countries.

OQ Chemicals – headquartered in Monheim, Germany – is expanding its production infrastructure through investments which in turn contributes to the increase in the production of propionic aldehyde.

OQ Chemicals will supply all of Röhm facilities and sites with the necessary raw materials while Röhm will undertake the construction of the global plant at the production headquarters of OQ Chemicals in Bay City, Texas.

Speaking on the occasion, Hilal Ali al Kharousi, chairman of OQ Chemical Company and chief executive – commercial and downstream at OQ Group, said, “Laying the foundation stone for this project is a great achievement that embodies the extent of our cooperation in the OQ Group, as we at OQ believe that ‘together: we achieve and progress’. Our joint ventures also promote the sustainable growth of our companies, which will improve performance, and create diverse competencies while working under one umbrella to achieve similar goals.”

Dr Michael Pack, CEO of Röhm, said, “Today is a historic day for Röhm, as the plant is the first methyl production of its kind in which the company will apply methacrylate production technology on a global industrial scale. We will set new standards to use available resources more efficiently while considering the environmental impact.”

He added that this technology depends on raw materials such as ethylene and methanol, which will be provided by OQ Chemicals and OQ Trading Company. This will give customers security in supply, reliability and continuity.

Methacrylate has a variety of uses in various applications such as coatings, adhesives, medical products and road regulations, and methacrylate derivatives are also used in other industries such as automobiles and construction work.

ONA