Denmark-based chemicals firm to enter Tianjin technology zone

Haldor Topsoe A/S, a Denmark-based manufacturer of catalytic products, on Friday signed an agreement valued at 900 million krone ($163 million) with the Tianjin Economic Technological Development Area to build a plant in the area.

The contract was signed during the visit of Queen Margrethe II of Denmark this week. The visit includes the largest-ever Danish business delegation, composed of 161 companies.

Catalytic products are used in a wide range of industries such as energy, steel, vehicles and chemical production. With China giving more emphasis to environmental issues, demand for catalysts that make industrial processes "cleaner" is set to expand.

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Executive Vice-President Ulrik Andreas Federspiel said China is set to become the company's biggest market. At present, it's in third place after the United States and Europe.

According to the annual report of Haldor Topsoe, its gross revenue in 2013 was equivalent to $994 million, of which China accounted for $130 million.

The company, which entered China in 1984, is investing in facilities here. Under the agreement signed on Friday, the company will build a catalyst plant in Tianjin.

It will be the company's third plant in China, in addition to its existing facilities in Denmark and the United States.

The company declined to give details of the capacity of the plant, but it said that it will be able to meet more than 25 percent of China's catalyst demand. Construction has begun and the facility will open in early 2015.

The new plant will focus on products that can be used to remove nitrogen oxide from the engine exhaust of diesel vehicles including light commercial vehicles, buses and trucks. As much as 20 percent of China's air pollution is estimated to stem from vehicles, according to the company.

China announced new emission regulations for diesel engine exhaust last July, and it's expected that those standards will soon get even tougher.