Corbion today announces that it has signed letters of intent for one-third of the volume of a 75 kTpa PLA polymerisation plant. Corbion reached the next milestone to enter the PLA market as set out in its strategy Disciplined Value Creation. 

“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 2nd source for PLA resins.” says CEO Tjerk de Ruiter. “These commitments were obtained from a broad range of PLA customers, operating in a variety of industries including food, packaging and fibers, located across different geographies.”

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.” continues 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 PLA producer. PLA is a unique bioplastic, being both biobased and biodegradable.