DSM announces plans for largest investment program ever for Dyneema

Tue, 22 April 2008

Royal DSM N.V., the global Life Sciences and Materials Sciences company headquartered in the Netherlands, today announces plans for a substantial capital expenditure program, expected to involve up to USD 450 million. This will increase production capacity in its Dyneema® business, enabling DSM to capitalize on expected continuous growth in demand in the United States for the world’s strongest fiber™. DSM Dyneema’s sales have grown by more than 15% per year in recent years and DSM expects the business group to accelerate its growth path.

Engineering studies have now commenced for the planned investment program, which is expected to involve several phases of implementation over the next 2-3 years. The expansion is expected to result in a significant increase in DSM’s US production capacity for the Life Protection market and will also include new breakthrough technology for ballistic and other applications. This will be the largest investment program since the start of large-scale production of Dyneema®.

This planned capital expenditure program is another step in a series of significant investments DSM has made in its Dyneema® business in recent years. In October 2007 a 25% increase in production capacity in the US Life Protection business was announced. More recently, in March 2008 DSM welcomed the start-up of its latest Dyneema® fiber production line in Greenville (North Carolina). The first additional line of this new multi-stage investment program is expected to be operational in 2009. The majority of the investments are likely to be in the United States.