NatureWorks secures $350 million financing from Thailand bank for Ingeo PLA plant

Executives from NatureWorks and Krungthai Bank PCL finalize the new financing. Photo Credit: NatureWorks LLC

Plymouth, Minn.-based polylactic acid (PLA) manufacturer NatureWorks LLC announced that it has secured US$350 million in “historic financial support” from Krungthai Bank PCL, Thailand’s third largest bank.

The funding will support the construction NatureWork’s Ingeo PLA manufacturing plant in Nakhon Sawan Province, Thailand. The facility is currently under construction and is scheduled to start production in 2025.

The new manufacturing facility is designed to be a fully-integrated PLA complex, including production sites for lactic acid, lactide, and polymer. With an annual capacity of 75,000 tons of Ingeo biopolymer, it will produce the full portfolio of Ingeo grades and support the rapid market growth across many markets in the Asia Pacific region, including 3D printing, nonwovens for hygiene, compostable coffee capsules, tea bags, flexible packaging, and compostable food serviceware.

The new manufacturing complex will be located at the Nakhon Sawan Biocomplex (NBC). In a May 15 news release, NatureWorks officials said the area has a strong agricultural base that can provide large quantities of sugarcane feedstock.

NatureWorks officials also said the company was chosen for the funding “because of its market leadership in defining bioplastic technologies and how those solutions will move Thailand’s Bio-Circular-Green (BCG) economy forward.”

BCG leverages technology and Thailand’s biological diversity to enable a more sustainable, innovation-driven, and values-based economy, they added.

The loan from Krungthai Bank is one of the largest in the bank’s decades-long history, the news release said.

“This backing from Krungthai Bank not only validates our strategic global positioning within Thailand and the Asia Pacific region but propels us toward continued expansion to support the worldwide bio economy,” said NatureWorks president and CEO Erik Ripple. “The funding will enable us to expand our international customer access to fully bio-based, low-carbon biomaterials that feature unique performance attributes valued by global downstream packaging and fibre markets.”