Ashland Global announced the company plans to increase production capacity of Natrosol hydroxyethylcellulose (HEC) at the Nanjing, China site.

“Ashland Natrosol rheology modifiers have been the leading cellulosic thickeners for waterborne architectural coatings for more than fifty years,” said Guillermo Novo, Chairman and CEO, Ashland.

“Given the unprecedented demand and our customer-centric strategy, Ashland will build upon our previous investments in Nanjing and further expand capacity. This demonstrates our commitment to invest in Asia. It also supports a key lever of Ashland’s growth strategy to ensure we can meet our customers’ growing needs and provide additional supply security across the globe.”

Natrosol HEC is a natural product, excellent thickening agent and used as a non-ionic rheology modifier in industrial and consumer focused applications.

Ashland is the leading global producer of HEC and supplies essential ingredients for a wide range of industries including paints and coatings, construction, oil and gas, personal care and pharmaceutical.