Teijin DuPont Films Japan starts up swing thick PET/PEN unit

08 April 2010 14:57  [Source: ICIS news]

TOKYO (ICIS news)--Japanese chemical producer Teijin DuPont Films Japan began commercial production at its polyester film unit in Utsunomiya, Tochigi prefecture, on 1 April after turning the facility into a swing unit to produce thick polyester films, a company spokesman said on Thursday.

Spending yen (Y) 1bn ($11m), the company had modified an existing production line and was now able to produce 8,000 tonnes/year of thick polyethylene terephthalate (PET) film, plus a nearly-equal volume of thick polyethylene naphthalate (PEN) film, Yoshihito Usami said.

The unit had previously been producing an undisclosed amount of medium-thickness PET film. The reconstructed facility is the first unit at the Utsunomiya plant to produce thick PET/PEN films, according to Usami.

While the primary application of thin PEN film- also produced at Utsunomiya- was for data storage for personal computers, demand for thick PEN film was increasing for various industrial usage such as electronics, hybrid and electric cars and energy purposes, Usami said.

Similarly, demand for thick PET film was also growing for use in liquid crystal display (LCD) panels and solar cell panels, Usami added.

“Now that we can produce thick (PET and PEN) films which have large demand, we can strengthen our cost-competitiveness,” Usami said in Japanese.

“We would like to produce good-quality products at low cost,” he added.

According to a second spokesman, Nobuyuki Honda, the modified polyester film unit will alternately produce thick PET or PEN film depending on demand from the customers.

Teijin DuPont Films’ Utsunomiya plant has four lines producing a total of 25,000 tonnes/year of PET and PEN films of different grades, according to Usami.

The company also operates another film plant in Gifu prefecture.

($1 = Y93.16)

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By: Tomomi Yokomura
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