Ticona
 | |
| Subsidiary | |
| Industry | Chemicals and advanced materials, engineering plastics |
| Founded | 1961 |
| Headquarters | Florence, Kentucky for USA / Kelsterbach, Germany for Europe |
Area served | Global |
Key people | Doug Madden (Managing Director), Michael Stubblefield (Managing Director) |
| Products | Polymers |
| Revenue | 808 million |
Number of employees | 1,450 |
| Parent | Celanese |
| Website | www.ticona.com |
Ticona is an international manufacturer of engineering polymers and a Celanese business. The company's head office is located at the Ticona/Celanese-Plant in Florence, Kentucky, USA, since 2005.
Company history
The Kelsterbach plant was founded in 1961 as a joint-venture between Celanese, an American corporation, and Hoechst AG of Frankfurt. Following the 1999 merger of Hoechst AG with the French pharmaceutical company Rhône-Poulenc (which formed Aventis), Ticona GmbH was attached to Celanese AG as a separate company.
The location of the Kelsterbach plant, with its approximately 1,100 employees, is close to the Rhein-Main-Airport, which has given rise to regular disputes with Fraport AG which runs the airport. The conflicts are about the safety of the plant and its proximity to future airport expansion. Therefore the relocation of the production facility in Kelsterbach to the Höchst industrial park was completed in June 2011, at a total cost of approximately €1.0 billion.
Since its creation in 1961, Ticona's main business is the production of Hostaform, a brand of POM for high performance applications.
On January 1, 2006, the former Ticona business unit, TOPAS, which manufactures and sells cyclic olefin copolymer (COC), was sold to the Japanese companies Daicel and Polyplastics (a joint-venture of Daicel and Ticona), which created the new company, TOPAS Advanced Polymers.
Ticona also holds shares in Fortron Industries which operates one of the largest polyphenylene sulfide production facilities in (Wilmington), USA as well as in PTM Engineering Plastics in Nantong, China.
With the acquisition of FACT Future Composites Technology GmbH by Celanese in 2010 Ticona has integrated the FACT long fiber-reinforced thermoplastics business in the newly founded Celstran GmbH. In 2010 Ticona also acquired the product lines Zenite LCP and Thermx PCT from DuPont Performance Polymers.
Brands
Ticona offers a wide range of engineering polymers:
- Polyacetal: Celcon and Hostaform (POM)
- Liquid crystal polymer: Vectra, Zenite (LCP)
- Long glass fiber reinforced thermoplastics: Celstran, Compel, FAKTOR, Pryltex (LFRT)
- Polyphenylensulfide: Fortron (PPS)
- Thermoplastic polyester: Celanex, Duranex, Vandar Polyester alloy (PBT), Impet (PET), Riteflex (TPE-E), Thermx (PCT)
- Ultra high molecular weight polyethylene: GUR (UHMWPE)
Locations
Ticona has locations in Europe, North and South America as well as in Asia:
- Höchst (Frankfurt am Main), Germany
- Kaiserslautern, Germany
- Oberhausen, Germany
- Auburn Hills, USA
- Wilmington, USA
- Shelby, USA
- Bishop, USA
- Florence, USA
- Winona, USA
- Suzano, Brazil
- Nanjing, China
- Shanghai, China