Mitsui start-ups progress elastomer plans in China

Tokyo - Mitsui Chemicals Inc. has announced the start-up, in March, of plants for the production of its Milastomer and Admer materials in the Jinshan district of Shanghai.

The units are based within an 11--kilotonnes-per-annum (ktpa) compounds plant operated by Mitsui Chemicals Functional Composites (Shanghai) Co. Ltd – established in 2012 as a centre for the manufacture and sale of functional polymeric materials in China.

The start-ups “underpin the group’s aggressive efforts to strengthen and expand its functional polymeric compound business through intensification of manufacture, distribution, and technical service," Mitsui Chemical stated.

Milastomer is a thermoplastic olefinic elastomer, widely used in glass run channels for automotive windows and in sheathing applications. Admer modified polyolefins are used in adhesives for automotive fuel tanks and food packaging.

Separately, Mitsui Chemical recently highlighted the contribution of its elastomers business to increased sales and profits at it’s Functional Polymeric Materials (FPM) division.

For the nine months of what the group defines as its 2014 fiscal year - to 31 March 2015 - sales at the division rose Yen7.5 billion (€56 million) year-on-year to Yen128,4 billion with operating earnings up Yen2.6 billion  to Yen11.9 billion.

Mitsui Chemical linked the gains, including a volume increase of Yen2.5 billion, to “brisk sales in elastomers and functional compounds in automotive uses, mainly in North America.”

The Japanese group’s offerings also include its ETP-branded EPDM, which is used in automotive parts such as glass-run channels, hoses, lamp seals and weatherstrip. The elastomer is also used in wire & cable, roofing sheet, industrial parts such as conveyor belts, hoses and electrical components.

Last December, Mitsui chemical began commercial operations at a new 75ktpa production facility for EPDM in China – operated by Shanghai Sinopec Mitsui Elastomers Co. Ltd. The joint venture, with Sinopec, is said to be one of the world’s largest single-train EPDM plants.