MOSCOW (MRC) -- Ube Industries will ramp up production of a chemical used in synthetic leather and other applications in response to demand from China and Southeast Asia, starting up a new plant this month in Thailand, said Nikkei Asian Review.
The Japanese chemical company plans to boost its production capacity for polycarbonate diol, for which it controls some 60% of the global market, to 16,000 tons a year in fiscal 2018. When used in car seats, synthetic leather made with polycarbonate diol is scratch-resistant and retains gloss well, according to the company.
Ube now churns out roughly 8,000 tons of the material a year in Japan and Spain. The plant opening in Thailand has a capacity of 3,000 tons. The company will spend nearly 1 billion yen (USD8.33 million) more to expand the facility, doubling its capacity to 6,000 tons a year by fiscal 2018. It plans to ship the chemical to autoparts makers in China and elsewhere. Efficiency at the Spanish factory will be boosted as well.
Ube aims to double polycarbonate diol sales from fiscal 2014 levels to about 8 billion yen by fiscal 2018.
As it was announced earlier, Ube Industries, Ltd. would expand its production capacity for lithium-ion battery separators by rebuilding existing facilities at its Ube Chemical Factory (Ube City, Yamaguchi Prefecture) while also establishing new production facilities for separators at Sakai Factory (Sakai City, Osaka Prefecture). The Company is taking these actions in response to growing demand for separators for automotive-use lithium-ion batteries.
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