MOSCOW (MRC) -- Chemical maker Tokuyama Corp. will set up a fifty-fifty joint venture in Taiwan with a local firm to manufacture high-purity isopropyl alcohol, expecting growing demand for the chip-cleaning solution in the expanding semiconductor market there, said Chemweek.
Formosa Tokuyama Advanced Chemicals Co. is scheduled to be established in Kaohsiung in October, with Formosa Plastics Corp. investing half of the capital NTD1 billion (USD34 million), the Tokyo-based company said.
The joint venture is expected to start manufacturing high-purity IPA in January 2022 for the local market, with a capacity of 30,000 tons per year, using the partner's propylene as a raw material, a Tokuyama official told NNA.
Tokuyama set up a local unit, Taiwan Tokuyama Corp., in 1996 to supply local chipmakers with its high-purity IPA, using near-complete products from Japan, while the new venture will have an integrated production system, procuring a raw material in Taiwan, according to the official.
As MRC informed earlier, Formosa Petrochemical Corp has slashed runs at its 540,000-bpd Mailiao oil refinery to about 68%, down from 80%, following last week’s shutdown of a secondary unit due to a fire.
Ethylene and propylene are feedstocks for producing polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP).
According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's overall PE production totalled 1,712,400 tonnes in the first seven months of 2020, up by 58% year on year. Linear low density polyethylene (LLDPE) accounted for the greatest increase in the output. At the same time, overall PP production in Russia increased in January-July 2020 by 24% year on year to 1,063,700 tonne. ZapSibNeftekhim accounted for the main increase in the output.
MRC