Solvay boosts vanillin production capacity

Solvay announced its decision to build a new state-of-the-art facility to manufacture vanillin in Zhenjiang City, in China’s Jiangsu Province, boosting its production capacities by 40% and enabling the Group to better serve the fast-growing Asian market.

Solvay Aroma Performance is one of the world’s biggest producer of vanillin with facilities in Baton Rouge in the United States and Saint-Fons in France. Combined with the new plant in Zhenjiang, expected to be operational by the end of 2014, the company’s worldwide production capacities for vanillin and ethyl-vanillin will expand significantly. Demand for vanillin in Asia is outpacing worldwide demand. The Zhenjiang facility will be fully compliant with both international and local stringent regulations.

With this new investment, Solvay Aroma Performance establishes a unique, sustainable and global industrial fully integrated vanillin platform, spread over three continents, and controls the entire production chain, from making the raw material catechol to flagship end products like Rhovanil vanillin. A network of fully equipped food application laboratories and food technologists together with a dedicated sales force cater for specific local demands and serve clients worldwide with a complete product range to meet strict regulatory and customer safety requirements.

“The addition of this manufacturing facility in China makes of Solvay a uniquely positioned highly reliable partner for our worldwide customers, especially those in the highly regulated food industry. It is an important step in our strategy to continue strengthening our market position, by offering a truly global production footprint that ensures full traceability for food safety and to consolidate Solvay as the global reference for food-safe vanillin” says Dominique Rage, President of Solvay Aroma Performance.

The Aroma Performance global business unit includes Solvay Group’s diphenol and fluorinated intermediates operations, comprising three main product segments: flavors and fragrances for the food and perfumery markets (with its flagship vanillin and ethyl-vanillin product line sold under the Rhovanil and Rhodiarome brand names); intermediates for the crop protection, pharmaceutical and electronics markets; and finally, inhibitors solutions used for by-products of the petrochemical industry.