Ube follows customers’ lead

06 September 2004 00:01  [Source: ACN]

UBE Industries is following its battery-manufacturer customers as they enter the Chinese market, a company source told ACN.

The source said Ube was building a plant in Wuxi, Jiangsu province, China, that would produce electrolytes for use in rechargeable lithium-ion batteries. He declined to reveal the capacity or investment cost of the plant, saying these details were confidential. The plant, he said, could start up sometime this year, but the actual date would depend on the strength of demand for the product.

Japanese battery manufacturers, the source said, had recently started exploring the Chinese market and looking at possible production sites. Ube, accordingly, had started building a plant in China to be close to its customers. The electrolytes plant would be operated by Ube’s wholly owned subsidiary, Ube Nitto Kasei.

The source said Ube had no plans for strategic alliances with local Chinese companies, but he did not rule out some kind of alliance in the future. The company, he said, had not faced any problems in setting up its plants in China.

Besides the electrolytes plant, he added, Ube also had a plant at the same Wuxi location run by Ube Electronics that manufactures raw materials for electronic equipment, as well as a joint venture with Rhodia that produces 4000 tonne/year of guaiacol. The joint venture, Jade Fine Chemicals, is 40% owned by Ube Industries and 60% owned by Rhodia, and is capitalised at Rmb60m (US$7.25m). Guaiacol is used as a raw material in the manufacture of preservatives, vanillin, and artificial musk, as well as in drug synthesis.

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