Kaneka makes capital investments totaling around ¥12 billion in Malaysia in aims of further business expansion in Asia
―Decision made to install a new silyl-terminated polymer plant and an additional modifier production facility―
May 13, 2015
1. A liquid polymer that becomes an elastic material when a curing catalyst is added and it reacts with the air moisture at room temperature. Kaneka MS Polymer-based elastic sealing materials are superior in a variety of aspects such as durability, heat and cold resistance.
2. Modifiers for various resins such as polyvinyl chloride (hereinafter “PVC”), that strengthen and improve the resin performance. A typical example is the impact modifier “MBS resin,” which increases impact resistance without losing the transparency of resins.
A new company, Kaneka MS Malaysia Sdn. Bhd. (Pahang, Malaysia; Managing Director: Fukuo Tsubouchi), will be established on the premises of Kaneka Malaysia for the silyl-terminated polymers, and a new facility will be acquired. The polymers, developed by Kaneka Corporation, have been produced and sold in Europe, the United States and Japan, and account for a dominant share of the market in these regions. In Asia, which experiences rapid economic growth, there has been a robust demand of high-performance adhesives and sealing materials due to Kaneka’s efforts for market creation. The subject investment is to ensure MS Polymer’s supply capacity in response to the increasing market demand. Moreover, the new company will be used as a BCP base for customers in Europe, the United States and Japan. The manufacturing capacity will be 9,000 tons annually, and the operation will be launched in early 2017.
Kaneka Malaysia has a manufacturing plant to produce 30,000 tons of modifiers annually, and an additional facility will be installed to increase the annual production capacity by 20,000 tons with the aim of securing supply to respond to increased modifier demand associated with the growing demand in Asia for PVC and engineering plastics. With this increased capacity, Kaneka will strengthen the global position of the modifier market with the 4 (Japan, Europe, United States and Asia) production plants. The operation will be launched in early 2017.
This capital investments will accelerate the expansion of Kaneka`s business in the functional plastics segment, and Kaneka`s plan is to increase the sales in the Asian region by more than ¥10 billion.
Kaneka aims to achieve consolidated sales of ¥1 trillion and an overseas sales ratio of 70% by 2020. Asia is a key region where we aim for aggressive business expansion. We will also actively invest outside of Malaysia. Specifically, we acquired a land in Thailand in January of this year for our production activities and are going to accelerate business development in the market. Additionally, in 2013 we launched an operation at our plant in Indonesia that manufactures processed oils and fats for foodstuffs, and are looking into further business expansion. By 2020 we aim to achieve ¥400 billion of sales revenue in Asia.
