February 24, 2009

MCC restructures PTA business, will shift HQ to Singapore and Haldia


TOKYO (Japan), February 24, 2009: Mitsubishi Chemical Corporation( MCC) will shift a part of headquarters operations of its terephthalic acid business from Japan to Singapore and India to reform the business structure in Asia. According to a MCC press release, the details are as follows:

MCC’s terephthalic acid business is developed under a basic policy of locating production sites in customer regions such as Indonesia, India, China, and South Korea, with overall business management based in Japan. In addition to that MCC has decided to shutdown production facilities in Japan, a state-of-the-art terephthalic acid production facility in India, on which construction started January 2006, will be completed at the end of February 2009 and start commercial operation by the end of June 2009.
Therefore, the terephthalic acid business will be developed mainly in Asian countries outside Japan.At that time, MCC plans to move headquarters operations for the business to Singapore in June 2009 and for the technology to India (Haldia, West Bengal) at the end of 2009 , in order to establish a new business model (the final responsibility of the total terephthalic acid business remains in Japan). While ensuring mobility in terms of purchasing raw materials, sales, and technology and localization of human resources, MCC will further promote the reformation of its business structure.

Mitsubishi Chemical Corporation also announced plans to shut down a terephthalic acid production facility at the Matsuyama Plant and a production facility at the Mizushima Plant that makes paraxylene, a raw material of terephthalic acid. The terephthalic acid production facility at the Matsuyama Plant started operation in July 1987. The terephthalic acid produced at the Matsuyama Plant is supplied to domestic manufacturers of polyester fibers and films as raw materials. The paraxylene production facility at the Mizushima Plant started operation in December 1968, and its entire output is used as raw material for terephthalic acid production at the Matsuyama Plant.MCC has taken various steps toward rationalization from every perspective. However, we concluded that there are no prospects to restoring profitability, and decided to shut down the facilities due to a trend of decreasing domestic demand for terephthalic acid.
The terephthalic acid production facility at the Matsuyama Plant and the paraxylene production facility at the Mizushima Plant are scheduled to be shut down in December 2010 and May 2010 respectively. Production of isophthalic acid will continue at the Matsuyama Plant, based on an operation agreement with AG. International Co., Inc.

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