Commencing Operations at Augmented Production Facilities for Thermoplastic Olefinic Elastomer MILASTOMER™

Mitsui Chemicals, Inc. (Tokyo: 4183; President & CEO: Tsutomu Tannowa) has been working on a one-line production augmentation (5,000 tons/annum) for MILASTOMER™ at its wholly owned domestic subsidiary Sun Alloys Co., Ltd. (President: Mitsuru Ito), in response to an upswing in demand for thermoplastic olefinic elastomers. Operations at the facility commenced on October 1.
This will increase the company’s annual domestic production capacity for MILASTOMER™ from 20,000 to 25,000 tons.

MILASTOMER™ is a light-weight, soft resin with low density and excellent moldability. Demand has grown significantly for uses in automotive materials, gaskets and civil engineering joint fillers, building materials, and grips, and is expected to continue to expand around the world in line with wider uses in automotive interiors, weather strips, steering bellows and as air bag covers. The purpose of augmenting MILASTOMER™ production is to actively cater to growing demand such as this.

In the Mitsui Chemicals Group’s Mid-Term Business Plan, it positions the Mobility segment as a targeted business domain that drives growth, in addition to the Healthcare and Food & Packaging domains, and has continued to proactively expand operations. The Group’s MILASTOMER™ business is a core business in the mobility domain and we will continue to bolster growth and expansion.
Mitsui Chemicals, as a solution provider, will continue to strengthen its MILASTOMER™ business through such efforts as the current planned Sun Alloys production augmentation to expand its business around the world by capturing demand in the growing global market by responding to needs.

Outline of Sun Alloys Co., Ltd.