MOSCOW (MRC) -- Mitsui Chemicals, Inc. and Prime Polymer Co., Ltd. (JV between Mitsui Chemicals - 65% and Idemitsu Kosan - 35%) have announced production augmentation, to strength the group’s position in growth markets, at three of its global PP compound hubs - United States, Mexico, and India - in response to growing demand for automotive use polypropylene, said Mitsui on its site.
In fiscal 2017, the Group will strengthen its production capacity by 5% in North America, Europe, and Asia bringing the production capacity to 1.05million from the current 1 million tons, thereby securing its position as the world’s top class provider of PP compounds for automotive use.
The group currently has 8 global production sites (Japan, USA, Mexico, Europe, Thailand, China, India, and Brazil) and R&D facilities in 5areas (Japan, USA, Europe, Thailand, and China) for automotive use polypropylene (PP) and has continued to enhance its production system for premium-quality products.
While needs to reduce environmental load and regulatory constraints expand, the demand for lighter weight automobile parts which do not require paint processing, such as bumpers and instrument panels, is also expected to grow.
As MRC wrote previously, in 2012, Mitsui Chemicals, Inc. and its affiliated Prime Polymer Co. were to boost capacity for PP compounds in Thailand to meet growing demands of the automotive materials sector in the region. An 18,000 tonnes/year expansion took capacity from 122,000 tonnes/year to 140,000 tonnes/year. The new capacity had been on stream by the third quarter of 2012.
Mitsui Chemicals is a leading manufacturer and supplier of value added specialty chemicals, plastics and materials for the automotive, healthcare, packaging, agricultural, building, and semiconductor and electronics markets. Mitsui Chemicals is a Japanese Chemicals company, a part of the Mitsui conglomerate. The company has a turnover of around 15 billion USD and has business interests in Japan, Europe, China, Southeast Asia and the USA. The company mainly deals in performance materials, petro and basic chemicals and functional polymeric materials. With the growth of opportunities in India, Mitsui Chemicals has decided to establish its first polypropylene compounding plant in India at 'Japanese Investment park' Neemrana phase III. The unit being set up will be the manufacturing base of Mitsui Chemicals Group in India in which Mitsui Chemicals holds 80% equity and 20% equity is with another subsidiary, Prime Polymer Company of Japan.
Prime Polymer Co., Ltd. was established in April 2005 as part of a comprehensive tie-up with Mitsui Chemicals, Inc. and Idemitsu Kosan Co., Ltd. The company's activity is focused in polyolefins business to produce different grades of polythylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP).
MRC