Tarragona is set to benefit from a new industrial investment in La Canonja, where Finnish chemical multinational Kemira plans to build two water treatment plants with a combined outlay of nearly €40 million, according to the Department of Business and Work.
Kemira, which specialises in water treatment products, says the project will help double its turnover in La Canonja. The company is developing the plants at its existing facilities in the municipality.
The first plant will be the Iberian Peninsula's first active carbon reactivation facility. Kemira will invest €20 million in the site, which is expected to be operational by 2029. The technology is designed to remove contaminants from drinking water by regenerating granular or pelletised active carbon for reuse up to seven times.
The second investment, also worth around €20 million, is already under way. It will be a plant for producing aluminium chlorohydrate (ACH), a high-basicity aluminium polychloride used to improve the removal of colour and particles from water. Kemira says this will be its first ACH plant in Southern Europe, adding to existing production in the United States and Poland.
The ACH plant is expected to be operational in 2028. Kemira says it focuses on the European and North African markets. The company was founded in 1920, is listed on Nasdaq Helsinki, and reported annual revenues of €2.8 billion in 2025, with about 4,900 employees worldwide.
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