JSR mulls new S-SBR plant in Asia ex-Japan by 2013/2014

14 December 2010 10:10  [Source: ICIS news]

TOKYO (ICIS)--JSR is looking at building a solution styrene butadiene rubber (S-SBR) plant outside of Japan, but within Asia, by 2013 or early 2014, given growing demand for the product, a company official said on Tuesday.

“We have a vision to build a plant roughly by that time, but we haven’t decided [on] the details. But we would like to do it [build a plant] as soon as possible,” the official, who declined to be named, said in Japanese.

“If we are going to build a synthetic rubber production line overseas, it needs [to be of] a reasonably large quantity [capacity],” he said, adding that the global standard for an S-SBR plant capacity is about 50,000-100,000 tonnes/year.

JSR hoped to finalise the plan within Japan's current fiscal year, which ends in March 2011, the official said.

In Japan, JSR is currently expanding its S-SBR capacity in Yokkaichi, Mie prefecture, through building a new 25,000 tonne/year unit, according to the official. The Yokkaichi plant currently produces 35,000 tonnes/year of S-SBR.

The line was scheduled to be completed in November 2011 and commercial production would likely start in 2012, the official said.

JSR's S-SBR capacity would increase to 90,000 tonnes/year once the new unit in Yokkaichi comes on stream, according to the official.

The capacity figure took into account the company's 50% share in Dow Europe's 60,000 tonne/year S-SBR plant in Schkopau, Germany, he said.

S-SBR is used to make tyres, rubber vibration insulators and footwear, according to JSR’s website.

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By: Tomomi Yokomura
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