As part of its ongoing drive to focus on high added value products, Mitsubishi Chemical Corporation (MCC, Tokyo / Japan; www.m-kagaku.co.jp) has announced plans to close its No. 1 ethylene cracker and No. 1 benzene plants in Kashima / Japan by 2014. To offset the drop in C2 output – MCC’s No. 1 cracker can turn out 375,000 t/y of ethylene – the Japanese company said it would raise capacity at its No. 2 cracker by 50,000 t/y. Also located in Kashima, MCC’s second C2 plant currently has a nameplate capacity of 453,000 t/y, a look at Plasteurope.com’s Polyglobe capacity database (www.polyglobe.net) indicates.

MCC said the overall cost of the site’s revamping, which also includes the relocation and instalment of new pipes, would amount to JPY 9.8 bn (EUR 98m). Once completed, the structural reforms associated with the lower cracker operation rate are expected to yield a reduction in annual fixed costs of about JPY 4 bn (EUR 40m).

The decision comes in the wake of several other measures undertaken by MCC to focus on high-performance products, including a withdrawal from the group’s vinyl chloride, polyamide and domestic terephthalic acid businesses as well as an end to its styrene monomer activities – see also Plasteurope.com of 12.06.2009. The reorientation has also resulted in the establishment of the Nishi Nippon Ethylene (Tokyo / Japan) joint venture with Asahi Kasei Chemicals (Tokyo / Japan; www.asahi-kasei.co.jp) – see Plasteurope.com of 28.02.2011.

MCC first embarked on this course in 2009, when it became increasingly clear that the group would not be able to compete with the large-scale standard thermoplastics production facilities in the Middle East as well as surging output in China and the shale gas revolution in the US. Since then the group has undertaken a number of measures to specialise, including the expansion of its ethylene carbonate and polypropylene production plants.