On September 27, Total and Corbion jointly announced their intention to establish a new PLA bioplastics plant in Europe through the Total Corbion PLA joint venture. The annual production capacity of this Europe's first world-scale PLA production plant is expected to reach 100,000 tons.
"This is great news for Corbion, Total, our joint venture, and the world," said Olivier Rigaud, CEO of Corbion. "It's fully in line with our mission-'Protecting the important things'. People are gradually becoming clear PLA’s position in bioplastics has accelerated the pace of achieving a circular economy. In our recently announced Advance 2025 strategy, one of our and Total’s goals is to become the market leader in PLA. This new plant allows us to Resolutely embark on the road to achieve this goal."
Bernard Pinatel, President of Total Refining and Chemicals commented: "We are very pleased to announce this second PLA plant project in Grandpuits, France, which strengthens our successful partnership with Corbion. This is fully in line with Total in the cycle. Innovation and development strategies in economic solutions. Bioplastics are an important supplement to meet the growing demand for polymers and also help reduce scrap issues."
The construction of the plant is expected to require approximately 200 million euros (233 million US dollars) in capital expenditures. Corbion and Total will participate equally in project financing; third-party debt may also be part of the financing. The company said that this incident also triggered the final settlement related to the joint venture latex factory with Total Corbion PLA. Corbion will continue to be the lactic acid supplier for the Total Corbion PLA joint venture.
Total Corbion PLA, a 50% joint venture between Total and Corbion, is the world’s largest supplier of lactide and the world’s second largest supplier of polylactic acid. Total Corbion PLA invested in a polylactic acid plant in Rayong, Thailand in 2017 In December 2018, PLA bioplastics with an annual production capacity of 75,000 tons was officially put into production.