Mitsui Chemicals to increase elastomer capacity

Tokyo - Mitsui Chemicals, Inc. is to add a new 5,000 tonnes/annum line for the production of its Milastomer thermoplastic elastomer materials, the company has announced.

The expansion at Mitsui’s domestic subsidiary Sun Alloys Co. Ltd is in response to “upswings” in demand for thermoplastic olefinic elastomers, said a 28 July press statement.

Construction work at Sun Alloys’ base in Chiba, Japan is scheduled to start in February 2017 with commercial operation of the elastomers line slated to begin next October.

Mitsui expects demand-growth to continue around the world in line, it said, with wider uses in automotive interiors and as weather strips.

The group statement described Milastomer as a "core business in the mobility domain" that would attract further resources to bolster growth and expansion around the world.

Last year Chinese subsidiary Mitsui Chemicals Functional Composites (Shanghai) Co. Ltd launched manufacturing and compounding operations for Milastomer materials at a facility in Jinshan district, Shanghai.