Shin-Etsu Chemical to make 80 billion yen in facility investments for its silicones business with the aim of further expanding and strengthening the business, according to SpecialChem.
Shin-Etsu Chemical increased its production capacity of silicone monomer, the intermediate material of silicones, at its two bases in Japan and Thailand by about 1.5 times. The company has implemented appropriate investments so far in this downstream area of our silicones business.
However, because there is strong demand from customers mainly for advanced functional products, the company is going to further increase its production capacity in this business field as a result of this new facility investment.
Shin-Etsu has already stated that it will strengthen the development of new silicone products and put the emphasis in specialty products. This new facility investment plan is aimed at strengthening this business strategy, and the investment amount is expected to exceed 80 billion yen. By these means, the company will meet the vigorously increasing demand for these products, and at the same time, we will be able to strengthen our stable supply system.
Shin-Etsu’s new facility investments will increase the production capacity of highly diversified types of silicone fluids, resins and rubber end products. In addition, the company will go forward with its endeavors toward contributing to the reduction of the environmental impact and to the development of advanced technologies such as by introducing equipment for molding silicone rubber that does not require post-cure and by introducing trial production equipment for Micro LED-related materials, which will improve productivity and save energy.
As MRC informed before, Shin-Etsu has declared force majeure (FM) on shipments of all polyvinyl chloride (PVC) grades from its plant in Pernis, the Netherlands. Thus, FM was declared on PVC supplies from this plant with the capacity of 450,000 mtyear on 6 May, 2021, following a critical and unforeseen leakage at the upstream vinyl chloride monomer (VCM) production plant in the Netherlands.
We remind that earlier, Shin Etsu declared force majeure on deliveries of all PVC grades from its plant in Pernis on October 13, 2020.
MRC