Rhodia has signed a joint venture agreement with Qingdao Haiwan Group and Qingdao Dongyue Sodium Silicate Company to build a sodium silicate plant at Qingdao, China.

The group said the facility will have a capacity of 220,000 tons and is expected to come on-stream in the first quarter of 2008.

The new facility will supply Rhodia's Asian silica manufacturing plants in Qingdao, China and Incheon, South Korea.