Sweden's Perstorp Enters New Markets

Swedish specialty chemical maker Perstorp will build a plant that has capacity to make 150,000 metric tons per year of valeric aldehyde and the derivatives valeric acid, 2-propylheptanol, and dipropyl heptylphthalate. The latter is a new polyvinyl chloride plasticizer that Perstorp expects to be adopted in large-volume PVC applications. The plant will be built in Stenungsund, Sweden, at a cost of about $235 million. Separately, Perstorp has opened a 160,000-metric-ton plant in Stenungsund for rapeseed methyl ester, a biodiesel fuel. Perstorp's main customer is Preem, Sweden's largest oil company.