Texas-based Celanese Corp. has begun production in its vinyl acetate ethylene (VAE) production unit, located at its manufacturing facility on Jurong Island, Singapore.

The new facility will support the growing demand materials in the Southeast Asia region, including Australia, India, and New Zealand.

Celanese Senior Vice President and head of Asia operations Mark Oberle (left) announces the opening of the Singapore VAE Emulsions Unit. Image source: Business WireAccording to the company, the Singapore location’s proximity to raw material suppliers offers transportation logistics and gives Celanese the opportunity to increase production capacity to supply more VAE emulsions products in Singapore as well as across Asia, an area focusing on low-emission products and production. Celanese is a global technology and specialty materials company.

The new unit adds a third facility to Celanese’s VAE investment in Asia and the fourth production unit within this Singapore plant. The first Celanese VAE unit began production at the company’s Nanjing, China, integrated chemical complex, and the second unit started producing VAE emulsions at the same Singapore complex. Celanese broke ground on the new Singapore VAE unit in April 2015.

VAE technology produces emulsions used by the building, construction, and paper industries worldwide. It’s also used by manufacturers produce environmentally friendly products including paints, architectural coatings, carpet backings, and adhesives for woodworking and paper packaging as well as apparel and textile finishing.

One of the Celanese’s most popular products in this category is EcoVAE, an emulsion that can be formulated into low-odor and low-to-near-zero VOC (volatile organic compounds) interior paints and coatings.

Celanese uses polymerization, process technology manufacturing and application technology to manufacture the emulsions in Asia, Europe, and North America.