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| Planned site for construction (Prime Polymer Ichihara Works) |
Prime Polymer Co., Ltd. (Minato-ku, Tokyo; President: FUJIMOTO Kensuke) announced the decision to construct a new polypropylene manufacturing facility as part of its plans for a scrap-and-build-style restructuring of its production system.
A material that is integral to a wide range of applications, polypropylene finds use in such areas as food containers, home appliances, automotive parts, medical applications and rechargeable batteries. Further, polypropylene is expected to see its role in everyday life grow more than ever with the changes being witnessed in societal needs, such as for reducing food loss, increasing medical treatment opportunities and extending the cruising range of electric vehicles. Amid these developments, Prime Polymer recognizes its responsibility to society as a producer of plastics to respond to the urgent environmental issues at hand, with these including climate change, plastic waste and the resulting efforts to create a circular economy.
The new manufacturing facility to be constructed will enable the production of high-performance polypropylene, something that has been unattainable with the facility used to date, and allow Prime Polymer to meet the growing needs for lightweighting and thinning in automotive materials. And through its offering of recycling-conducive materials here, Prime Polymer is looking to help drive material recycling.
Moving forward, Prime Polymer plans to suspend its existing manufacturing facility with a view to production capacity that is in line with supply–demand balance. In restructuring its production system here, Prime Polymer anticipates the effect of approximately 70,000 tons in reduced greenhouse gas emissions annually against 2013 figures. Further, Prime Polymer will be ramping up its circular economy-related efforts through the likes of providing of biomass raw material-based materials.
The facility with annual capacity of 200,000 tons will be built in Ichihara, Japan. For manufacturing, a licenced technology from Mitsui Chemicals, Inc, will be applied. Start of construction is planned for August 2021, start of operations is planned for November 2024.
