Sumitomo Chemical Co. Ltd. (TYO:4005) and Saudi Aramco have been moving forward somewhat more slowly than anticipated with the ethylene propylene diene monomer (EPDM) plant under their joint Petro Rabigh project. But now the plant, scaled at 75,000 tons in annual production, looks to achieve mechanical completion sometime around April–June this year. Once there are finished products on hand, plans...
Arlanxeo announced on March 1 a same-day price increase for its Baypren chloroprene rubber (CR) across South America, Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Asia. With the markup, the price now becomes 700 euros per ton. The company said that the decision for the price hike came on account of production costs and overall market trends over the last several...
Chemical manufacturer Tosoh Corp. (TYO:4042) plans to transfer the sales rights to its thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU) elastomer operations over to wholly owned subsidiary Nippon Miractran Co. Ltd. With the move to take effect Oct. 1, the Tosoh Group is consolidating TPU elastomer manufacturing and marketing over to Miractran in a bid to strengthen business in this sector. Established in September...
Bando Chemical Industries Ltd. (TYO:5195) is relocating the head factory of its Indian subsidiary, Bando (India) Pvt. Ltd. Plans at present are to move over to a new factory with a site area of 4,000 square meters, located within the same industrial park of IMT Manesar in Gurugram City. Operations are scheduled to commence in the first half of this...
Kuraray Co. Ltd. (TYO:3405) said that Sumitomo Rubber Industries Ltd. (TYO:5110) has adopted liquid farnesene rubber (LFR) as a performance enhancing additive in the production of its latest winter tire, the Winter Maxx 02. This is the first time that LFR is used in car tires. LFR is a liquid rubber developed by Kuraray using farnesene, a new biologically derived...
The Isoprene Chemicals (IPC) division of Kuraray Co. Ltd. (TYO:3405) has posted a year-on-year 0.2-percent increase on operating profit for 2016, at 6.934 billion yen ($60.53 million). The modest increase comes on a 7.1-percent decline in year-on-year sales, at 51.083 billion yen. Despite performing strongly with fine chemicals, thermoplastic elastomers and liquid rubber, the division struggled with its heat-resistant polyamide...
