Japan\'s Kuraray to build new chemical plant in S\'pore

Tag : resin plant

RENOWNED Japanese chemical company Kuraray is building a new,multi-million dollar chemical plant on Jurong Island.
The new plant, which is likely to be sited besides its existingpolyvinyl alcohol resin (PVA) plant, will produce 15,000 tonnes ofpolyvinyl butyral resin (PVB resin) every year.
PVA is one of the main raw materials for PVB resin, which is, inturn, used to make products like safety glass and solar panels.
This new plant is one of two Kuraray PVB resin plants worldwide.The other, producing 40,000 tonnes of PVB resin annually, is inGermany.
The company is currently finalising the investment it is puttinginto this new plant, which is expected to take two years to build,said Kuraray senior executive officer Toshihide Sakai at a pressconference on Tuesday.
Kuraray also announced that it is setting up a new regional hub,Kuraray Asia Pacific, in Singapore.
This new company is the merger of three existing entities:investment and holding firm Kuraray Singapore, its Singapore PVAmanufacturing arm Poval Asia, and its marketing arm KuraraySpecialities Asia.
Singapore's $80 billion chemical industry has chalked up animpressive growth rate of 20 per cent annually in the last fewyears, according to the Economic Development Board.
Besides Kuraray, the other Japanese chemical companies that haveset up regional headquarters here include Sumitomo Chemical andMitsui Chemicals.