Automotive sales lift Mitsui elastomers business

Tokyo – A strong performance by Mitsui Chemical Inc.’s elastomers business contributed significantly to increases in sales and profits at the group’s Functional Polymeric Materials (FPM) division.

For the nine months of what Mitsui defines as its 2014 fiscal year - to 31 March 2015 - sales at the division rose Yen7.5 billion (€56 million) year-on-year to Yen128,4 billion with operating earnings up Yen2.6 billion  to Yen11.9 billion.

Mitsui linked the gains, including a volume increase of Yen2.5 billion, to “brisk sales in elastomers and functional compounds in automotive uses, mainly in North America.”

The Japanese group’s offering include its ETP-branded EPDM, which is used in automotive parts such as glass-run channels, hoses, lamp seals and weatherstrip. The elastomer is also used in wire & cable, roofing sheet, industrial parts such as conveyor belts, hoses and electrical components.

Mitsui went on to highlight the Dec 2014 launch of commercial operations at a new 75-kilotonnes-per-annum (ktpa) production facility for EPDM in China – operated by Shanghai Sinopec Mitsui Elastomers Co. Ltd. The joint venture with Sinopec (China Petroleum & Chemical Corp.?is said to be one of the world’s largest single-train EPDM plants.

China is also the location for a newly started 11-ktpa functional compounds plant, operated by Mitsui Chemical Functional Composites (Shanghai) Co. Ltd. Output includes Mitsui’s Milastomer thermoplastic olefinic elastomer and Admer adhesive polyolefin products.