Sumitomo debuts MMA plans

21 April 2003 00:00  [Source: ICB]

Sumitomo Chemical has revealed plans to build a 80 000 tonne/year methyl methacrylate (MMA) plant on Jurong Island, Singapore. Engineering work on the site is under way and construction should begin in the fourth quarter and be completed by mid-2005.

A subsidiary of Sumitomo, Singapore Methyl Methacrylate, already runs a 53 000 tonne/year MMA plant on the proposed site.

The Japanese chemical company also plans to debottleneck its 35 000 tonne/year polymethyl methacrylate plant on Jurong Island to 50000 tonne/ year by mid-2004.

In May, the company plans to boost MMA production at its plant in Ehime, Japan, from 30 000 tonne/year to 45 000 tonne/year through debottlenecking, and to expand production of MMA extruded sheets for light-guide panels to 10 000 tonne/year in November.

The expansions will give Sumitomo a total annual MMA monomer production capacity of 323 000 tonne/year, and the company says it is already looking at the possibility of constructing another plant in China, Taiwan, Singapore or elsewhere in Asia by 2007.

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