Lonza to expand vitamin B3 production in China
Lonza supplies about half of the world’s vitamin B3 for the food, feed, cosmetic and pharma industries, and says new technologies will permit lower manufacturing costs when the facility in Nansha comes online, probably at the end of 2012.
Its capacity at that point will rise from 22500 tonnes to 37,500 tonnes – a 15,000 tonne increase.
“The new facility underlines our commitment to be the global leader in the nicotinates business and to deliver the food, feed, cosmetic and pharma industry with high quality vitamin B3 products,” said Roman Quinter, senior vice president and head of Lonza’s Nutrition Ingredients business.
“We will also take advantage of very promising innovations in technology and process development. These innovations will provide cost and efficiency advantages to all the company’s nicotinate facilities.”
Lonza, which this year marked 40 years of vitamin B3 supply, already a presence in Nansha with an engineering business unit, and had been supported by local authorities in the new venture.
The company said the new facility would help meet demand both in China and internationally.
The Swiss firm said it had it invested in a series of studies on the vitamin also known as niacin investigating both human and animal health potentialities.
Lonza began producing vitamin B3 in Switzerland and followed that with Chinese expansion, first in 1995 in Guangzhou, then in Nansha in 2003.
“Lonza’s multi-site concept, know-how and experience … have enabled us to become the leading partner to support the long-term growth for food formulators and end-use product manufacturers of human and animal nutrition products,” Quniter said.
Vitamin B3 has been shown to reduce the incidence of pellagra, a malady that causes dermatitis, diarrhea and dementia.
It has also been shown to improve bodily lipid profiles by increasing HDL cholesterol (good cholesterol) levels.
