Japan’s Mitsui’s electrolyte JV with Formosa to raise capacity at China plant

LONDON (ICIS)–Mitsui Chemicals and partner Formosa Plastics plan to raise capacity at their plant in Ningbo, China, by 3,500 tons/year, to 5,000 tons/year, the Japanese company said on Wednesday.

The plant, which is a joint venture in the production of lithium-ion battery-use electrolyte solutions, started up earlier this year with an initial capacity of 1,500 tons/year capacity.

The 50:50 Formosa Mitsui Advanced Chemicals (FMAC) joint venture expects to begin commercial operations at the expansion towards the end of 2017.

The expansion is in response to demand for lithium-ion batteries, which has expanded in line with the growth of the markets for laptops, smartphones and tablet devices.

Furthermore, demand from the automotive market is forecast to rise, “with the surge in demand for environment-friendly plug-in hybrid and electric vehicles, especially in China”, Mitsui Chemicals said.

Separately, Mitsui Chemicals expects to begin commercial operations in April 2017 at a new 5,000 electrolyte solution plant in Nagoya, Japan, it said.

The company is targeting “the mobility domain” as a growth driver and will further strengthen its electrolyte solution business by expanding its production and supply systems in China and Japan, it added.

The automotive industry is a major global consumer of petrochemicals which contributes more than a third of the raw material costs of an average vehicle. ICIS tracks the movement of petrochemical raw material costs in auto production both globally and regionally with the weighted ICIS Basket of Automotive Petrochemicals (IBAP).

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