TOKYO—As part of its commitment to expand production capacity for a variety of silicones, Japanese materials supplier Shin-Etsu Chemical Co. Ltd. has unveiled a plan to invest $986 million in its silicone operations throughout the world within the next two to three years.
Driven by global demand for silicone products, the expansion will allow for increased production of silicone monomer and variety types of silicone fluids, resins and rubber products at Shin-Etsu sites in Japan and throughout the woprld.
"We are receiving a wide variety of requests for our silicone products from many customers around the world, and in order to meet these customer requests, we are implementing a sequential series of new investments," Shin-Etsu said in a news release. "By means of these investments, we will further strengthen our integrated production system, and at the same time, we will fortify our ability to contribute to issue solutions for our customers."
The investments will be implemented in stages. The company has earmarked $448 million capacity expansion of intermediate (monomer) products in Japan and Thailand; $448 million for capacity expansion of rubber products at sites in seven countries, including Japan; and about $90 million for upgrades to secondary facilities in support of infrastructure and shipping.
Shin-Etsu maintains that silicones have been a "strategically important business" for the company and will continue to be in the future.