Corbion signs pact for supply of bioplastics polylactic acid

Corbion, on May 7, 2015, announced that it has signed letters of intent for one-third of the volume of a 75 kTpa PLA (polylactic acid) polymerisation plant. With this, Corbion has reached the next milestone to enter the PLA market as set out in its strategy Disciplined Value Creation. PLA is a unique bioplastic, being both biobased and biodegradable.
 
“Over the past few months we have been in contact with a range of existing and new PLA users. These contacts have formally confirmed their strong interest to have access to a credible and reliable major second source for PLA resins. These commitments were obtained from a broad range of PLA customers, operating in a variety of industries including food, packaging and fibres, located across different geographies,” said Tjerk de Ruiter, CEO, Corbion.
 
In order to further accelerate market acceptance of PLA, Corbion has already begun to test, validate and sell pre-marketing volumes of PLA. “Making these pre-marketing resins available will accelerate market acceptance of PLA and will allow Corbion to get deeper insight into the various product-market combinations. The pre-engineering is in full progress and is expected to run till end of the year,” continued Tjerk de Ruiter.
 
As part of its strategy Disciplined Value Creation, announced on 30 October 2014, Corbion is accelerating its thrust into the biotechnology arena, making the next step in the bioplastics value chain by becoming a polylactic acid producer.