06-02-2012

Sumitomo Chemical holds groundbreaking ceremony for new S-SBR plant in Singapore

Sumitomo Chemical announced that on February 6, 2012 it held a groundbreaking ceremony and a celebration reception for the new solution styrene-butadiene rubber (S-SBR) manufacturing plant to be constructed in Singapore by its group company Sumitomo Chemical Asia PTE LTD.

In attendance at the ceremony, which began at 10AM on the site of the new plant on Jurong Island, were Eugene Leong, Deputy Director of the Singapore’s Economic Development Board, and Heah Soon Poh, Director at the JTC Corporation, among others.

In the afternoon, the celebration reception was held at a nearby hotel that welcomed Lim Hng Kiang, Singapore’s Minister for Trade and Industry, Yoichi Suzuki, the Japanese ambassador to Singapore, Leo Yip, Chairman of Singapore’s Economic Development Board, Manohar Khiatani, CEO of JTC Corporation, and participants from companies involved in the plant construction.

S-SBR is seeing rapid demand growth as a raw material for high-performance, fuel-efficient tires amid increasingly strict worldwide regulations on automobile fuel consumption. In November 2010, the Company decided to construct the new S-SBR plant in Singapore because of its geographical advantage in the supply to rapidly growing Asian markets, and stable procurement of the raw material butadiene as well as tie-ups with existing businesses of the Sumitomo Chemical Group in the region. Construction work commenced in January 2012 upon the completion of land reclamation at the site, and the facility is scheduled for completion in June 2013. Commercial operations are planned to begin during the fourth quarter of 2013. The Company, expecting further demand growth, is working on a plan to build an additional plant to increase production.

The Company's S-SBR is manufactured by its proprietary production process technology and with its advanced polymer modification technology that is a key to achieving higher product performance. The S-SBR has won high praise from its customers in the tire manufacturing industry both in Japan and overseas for being a highly fuel-efficient tire material with outstanding abrasion resistance. The Company continues to enhance its S-SBR business globally by increased production with the new plant in Singapore and future expansions, along with its existing 10, 000 tons per annum plant in Japan.