Shin-Etsu to invest €850m in silicones business

Tokyo – Japanese materials supplier Shin-Etsu Chemical has announced plans to invest ¥110 billion (€854 million) in the next two-and-a-half years in its silicones operations, a core business of the company.

As part of the commitment, the Tokyo-based company will expand production capacity for silicone monomer – the intermediate product of silicones – and various types of silicone fluids, resins and rubber end products at the company’s main bases in Japan and globally.

“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,” said a Shin-Etsu statement 3 Sept.

The investments, which will be implemented in stages, and will see Shin-Etsu pumping ¥50 billion in intermediate products (monomer) capacity expansion, ¥50 billion in end products’ capacity expansion and about ¥10 billion in upgrading other secondary facilities such as infrastructure and shipping.

The silicone monomer expansion will be carried out at Shin-Etsu’s existing bases in Japan and Thailand. Investments in end products will include Japanese sites as well as production units in six overseas countries.

Shin-Etsu maintains that silicones have been a “strategically important business” for the company and will continue to be in the future.

“Going forward, we will work to further enhance the existence value of silicones,” the company added.