Japanese firm opens butadiene rubber plant in Malaysia

JOHOR, Malaysia—Japan's Ube Industries Ltd. has opened a butadiene rubber plant in Johor to help it meet growing demand for BR in Asia from the tire, rubber and plastics industries.

The plant, Lotte Ube Synthetic Rubber, has an annual production capacity of 50,000 metric tons but is designed to be expanded to 77,000 tons, Ube Industries said.

Michio Takeshita, chairman of Ube Industries, and Shin Dong Bin, chairman of the Lotte Group, addressed the crowd at the ceremony marking the opening of the plant, as well as the chief minister of the Johor state.

The joint venture plant, which has 70 employees, is Ube's fourth BR facility. The others are in Japan, Thailand and China; the four plants have a combined annual capacity of 320,000 tons.

The main applications for BR are for use in tires, high impact polystyrene and shoe soles, according to Ube, which added that Asia is the biggest market for the material.

The JV was set up in March 2013 with the capital stock of $60 million by Lotte Chemical Corp. (40 percent), Lotte Chemical Titan Holding Sdn. Bhd. (10 percent), Ube Industries Ltd. (40 percent) and Mitsubishi Corp. (10 percent).