In a move aimed at growing its business not only in Japan but also with overseas Japanese companies, Dutch chemical group DSM (Sittard / The Netherlands; www.dsm.com) on 26 March opened an application development technical centre for engineering plastics in Yokohama, Kanagawa / Japan. The investment cost for the new hub, which received subsidies from Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry as well as Yokohama City, were not disclosed.

The main focus of the centre is on functional engineering plastics used in automotive, E&E and flexible food packaging applications. “We cover all the engineering plastic product lines of DSM, such as ‘Stanyl’, ‘Stanyl ForTii’, ‘EcoPaXX’, ‘Akulon’, ‘Arnitel’, ‘Arnite’ and ‘Novamid’,” said DSM Japan Engineering Plastics managing director Hiroshi Yoshida. The centre also boasts material and application testing equipment, allowing customers to look into injection moulding, physical property testing and thermal and chemical analyses.

Aside from the new centre in Japan, DSM operates four other hubs across the globe, including in Europe, the US, China and India. Testifying to the growing importance of the Asian market to the group’s engineering thermoplastics business, DSM Engineering Plastics last year moved its global headquarters to Singapore – see Plasteurope.com of 16.02.2012.