Sumitomo Chemical (Tokyo; www.sumitomo-chem.co.jp/english) plans to increase its production of high-performance liquid crystal polymer (LCP) at its Japanese site in Niihama City, Ehime, by mid-2023. The new polymerisation and compounding lines are expected to increase the company’s LCP capacity by around 30%.

According to Plasteurope.com’s Polyglobe database (www.polyglobe.net), Sumitomo currently has a total of some 13,000 t/y of LCP capacity at its domestic sites in Ehime and Osaka and at its Chinese facility in in Wuxi, Jiangsu. With around 21% of the global market, this puts the supplier in third place internationally behind world leader Celanese at nearly 29% and Polyplastics at 24%.

The expansion is expected to boost available output by 4,000 t/y, which would push the company to about the current level of Celanese. However, last year the American firm also announced plans to build more capacity in China, which could be onstream in 2024 or 2025 (see Plasteurope.com of 08.02.2021). Celanese has not yet announced a location for its facility.

LCP is used in numerous products requiring temperature resistance up to 240C, flowability, and dimensional stability. The main application areas include computer components and smartphones.