Mitsui to increase capacity for elastomers in Singapore; opens PU systems house in India

Singapore-headquartered Mitsui Elastomers Singapore, a wholly owned subsidiary of Mitsui Chemicals, is set to raise its production capacity for Tafmer high-performance elastomers, a resin modifier and soft moulding material.

At the facility in Jurong Island, the firm will increase capacity from 200,000 to 225,000 tonnes/year by 2020.

Both flexible and lightweight, the elastomer series sees use in a wide range of applications, including automotive materials, packaging materials, solar battery encapsulants, engineering plastic modifiers and sports shoe midsoles.

Global economic growth is driving strong demand for Tafmer, with automotive material applications in particular expected to see further demand growth going forward. This comes as automobile production numbers continue to rise and tightening environmental regulations spur needs for lightweighting.

Mitsui Chemicals has a long track record when it comes to supplying automotive material manufacturers around the world, focusing here on polypropylene (PP) compounds. To keep up its steady supply moving forward, the company plans to remove bottlenecks at existing Tafmer production facilities, allowing it to increase production capacity for the elastomer series.

Meanwhile, in other news, Mitsui has opened a PU system house in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh at its Mitsui Chemicals & SKC Polyurethanes Co. (a 50:50 joint venture of Mitsui Chemicals and SKC Co.) recently.

Through this system house, Mitsui says it will stably supply high quality products to Korean and Japanese customers in India, and will expand its supply to Indian companies in the future. India’s production of automobiles with high polyurethane usage is the world’s fifth with 4.7 million units/year. In particular, Korean and Japanese manufacturers account for 70% of India’s entire automobile production and 50% of refrigerators.