Sector News

Categories

Borderless Insights

Image
Negotiating Terms with a New Employer
Image
Beyond Flowers and Platitudes: Reclaiming the Essence of International Women’s Day
Image
Visionary or ‘Stuck-in-the-Mud’? Where are you on Workplace Flexibility?

Mitsui Chemicals, SKC to merge polyurethane material businesses

December 22, 2014
Energy & Chemical Value Chain
Mitsui Chemicals and SKC (Seoul) plan to merge their polyurethane (PU) raw material businesses into a joint venture by 1 April 2015. Mitsui president and CEO Tsutomu Tannowa and SKC CEO Jang Suk Park signed the jv agreement today.
 
The jv, yet to be named, will be equally owned by the two companies and fully use their worldwide networks. The jv will be headquartered in South Korea and is expected to generate sales of about $1.50 billion in 2015, rising to about $2.00 billion/year in 2020.
 
The jv will aim to reduce costs by integrating the partners’ PU system product businesses and develop new applications through consolidating products and technologies.
 
Mitsui will contribute to the jv a 120,000-m.t./year toluene diisocyanate (TDI) plant at Omuta, Japan, and the company’s 50% share of the 200,000-m.t./year methylene di-para-phenylene isocyanate (MDI) plant operated by the Kumho Mitsui Chemicals jv at Yeosu, South Korea. Mitsui will also contribute a 50,000-m.t./year polyols plant at Nagoya, Japan, as well as a 40% stake in the Vithal Caster Polyols jv, which is slated to start up an 8,000-m.t./year biomass-to-polyols plant in Gujarat State, India, next year. SKC will contribute a 180,000-m.t./year MDI unit at Ulsan, South Korea. 
 
Mitsui announced earlier this year that it would close a 117,000-m.t./year TDI plant at Kashima, Japan; and a 60,000-m.t./year MDI plant at Omuta by the end of 2016. These plants will operate as part of the planned jv with SKC until they close.
 
The jv will have PU systems operations at Beijing, Foshan, Suzhou, and Tianjin, China; as well as in Indonesia, Malaysia, Poland, Thailand, and the United States.
 
By Ian Young with Clement Choo
 

comments closed

Related News

May 4, 2024

Heikki Malinen appointed as the President and CEO of Neste Corporation

Energy & Chemical Value Chain

Neste Corporation’s Board of Directors has appointed Heikki Malinen, M.Sc. (Econ.), MBA (Harvard) as the President and CEO of Neste as of 2 November 2024, at the latest. Malinen joins Neste from Outokumpu Corporation where he has held the position of President and CEO since 2020.

Read more
May 4, 2024

Rossouw to step down as Sasol CFO in October

Energy & Chemical Value Chain

Petrochemicals company Sasol has announced that CFO and executive director Hanré Rossouw will step down from his position, effective October 31. Sasol has started the process to appoint a successor. Rossouw will still oversee the publication of Sasol’s reports for the financial year ending June 30, to allow for a structured handover period.

Read more
May 4, 2024

Chemours CFO Jonathan Lock resigns following code of ethics violations

Energy & Chemical Value Chain

Chemours announced its CFO Jonathan Lock has resigned from all positions within the company, according to an SEC 8-K filing on April 23. The resignation comes in the aftermath of the company announcing that Lock, former CEO Mark Newman, and principal accounting officer Camela Wisel, had been placed on administrative leave.

Read more
More news

How can we help you?

We're easy to reach