DALLAS (AP) -- Celanese Corp. increased its cost savings to about $250 million by 2010, up more than double prior estimates, the chemical company said Monday.
Among other steps, the company is aligning manufacturing to meet future demand, producing cost savings that go well beyond its prior estimates for $100 million to $120 million, Celanese said.
Celanese plans to invest between $250 million and $270 million in productivity projects to generate these savings, company executives said at an investor conference in New York. Among the efforts is its AOPlus acetic acid technology, which enables the company to increase acetic acid production to 1.5 million tons from 1.2 million tons.
The Dallas-based company also announced plans to double the capacity for acetic acid production by the end of the year in its plant in Nanjing, China. Celanese is also evaluating options for expanding manufacturing of vinyl acetate ethylene in Asia to meet increased demand.
In afternoon trading, Celanese shares gained 46 cents to trade at $22.12. The stock has traded between $5.71 and $50.99 in the past 52 weeks, and is up 74 percent since the start of the year.
