TICONA TARGETS ASIA

Ticona, the engineering plastics business of Celanese AG, announced that it will establish Ticona Japan Ltd. to grow its GUR® ultra-high molecular weight polyethylene (PE-UHMW) business in Asia.

The new company, which will be headquartered in Tokyo, was established to continue their success in growing these products into Asia through a dedicated effort to build up a regional organization.

Ticona is also evaluating market options for Topas® in Asia. The Cyclo-olefin copolymer is a new product and is expected to grow aggressively.

The construction of the first commercial plant worldwide for these amorphous polymers, made from ethylene and norbornene using proprietary metallocene catalyst technology, is underway at Ticona's Oberhausen, Germany site and will have a capacity of 30,000 tons/year. It will come on stream by the middle of 2000.

For more information, contact Ticona, 90 Morris Ave.,Summit, NJ 07901, 908-598-4000.