MMA plant for Jurong Island

and Foster Wheeler Asia Pacific have been awarded an engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract by

for a new methyl methacrylate (MMA) manufacturing plant.

The facility will be built on Jurong Island, Singapore for Lucite International (LISPL), a manufacturer of acrylic products and owner of the Lucite and Perspex brands.

The terms of the contract were not disclosed, and the project will be included in the company's third-quarter 2006 bookings.

Foster Wheeler has already completed the basic engineering design for this 120,000 tonnes per annum plant. Lucite International has recently marked the start of construction of the new plant with a groundbreaking ceremony held in Singapore in mid-July 2006. The plant is scheduled for commissioning in 2008.

The new plant will use Lucite International UK’s proprietary Alpha technology which, according to Lucite International, offers economic and environmental benefits over conventional MMA manufacturing routes, and is set to change the production cost-base for MMA, the basic building block of the acrylics industry. This is the first in a series of Alpha-based facilities planned by Lucite International.