Arkema Officially Opens the Expansion of Its R&D Center in Shanghai

PARIS LA DÉFENSE--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Regulatory News:

Arkema (Paris:AKE) announces the opening of the expansion of its Shanghai R&D Center, which will take the center to the next level and strengthen its strategic role as an innovation platform serving all the Group’s businesses. The center will enable synergies among teams and co-development with customers in China and across Asia, to accelerate innovation in cutting-edge applications and the successful deployment of advanced and sustainable material solutions. This expansion is fully aligned with the Group’s investment strategy in its global R&D laboratory network.

During his visit in China, Thierry Le Hénaff, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Arkema, inaugurated the expanded center alongside the Consul General of France in Shanghai, local government representatives, customers, partners and management representatives.

“China is Arkema’s second-largest market and one of the most dynamic innovation hubs worldwide. As industries and customers in China accelerate their R&D efforts, we must continue to strengthen our local capabilities to stay closely aligned with their evolving needs. This upgrade of Arkema’s R&D Center in Shanghai will bring together expertise from across the Group to co-develop with our customers high performance, sustainable Specialty Materials solutions,” said Thierry Le Hénaff, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Arkema.

Arkema’s R&D Center in Shanghai was originally established in 2011 as Bostik’s Asia Technology Center, focused on adhesive solutions. Over the past 15 years, the center has developed strong expertise in materials synthesis, formulation development and application-relevant validation, bringing innovations to markets such as high-speed rail, food packaging and sustainable consumer goods.

This expansion illustrates the One Arkema strategy by leveraging the Group’s broad materials expertise to strengthen its role as a preferred innovation partner. It increases laboratory space by around 20% and adds new collaborative areas, including an interactive showroom, to showcase Arkema’s Specialty Materials solutions and foster closer engagement with customers and partners. This expansion will also reinforce the interactions with the local innovation ecosystem, through partnerships with organizations such as Shanghai Chemical Industrial Park and Green Support Industry (Shanghai) Co., Ltd., which are closely connected to start-ups and emerging technology companies.

In China, the Group will keep on developing its R&D local network in key regions:

• In the coming 2 months, Arkema will reach a new milestone in the modernization and scaling-up of its battery materials laboratory capabilities, which started earlier this year, at its Changshu R&D Center,
• Arkema is currently building a One Arkema laboratory in Guangzhou, that will focus on electronics and battery customers.

More globally, Arkema continues to strengthen its innovation capabilities through a particularly dense global R&D network, that combines the expertise developed in China with that of the Group’s research centers in other parts of Asia, in Europe, and in the United States.

Building on its unique set of expertise in materials science, Arkema offers a portfolio of first-class technologies to address ever-growing demand for new and more sustainable materials. With the ambition to become a world leader in Specialty Materials, the Group is structured into three complementary, resilient and highly innovative segments dedicated to Specialty Materials - Adhesive Solutions, Advanced Materials, and Coating Solutions - accounting for some 85% of Group sales in 2025, and a Primary Materials segment regrouping well-positioned large scale industrials activities. Arkema offers cutting-edge technological solutions to meet the challenges of, among other things, new energies, access to water, recycling, urbanization and mobility, and fosters a permanent dialogue with all its stakeholders. The Group reported sales of around €9.1 billion in 2025 and operates in some 55 countries with 20,700 employees worldwide.

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