JSR - BST finalise Thai S-SBR deal

ERJ staff report (DS)

Tokyo -- JSR Corpsaid it has entered into a final agreement with Bangkok Synthetics Co., Ltd.to establish a joint venture and build a manufacturing plant for S-SBR (Solution Polymerised Styrene-Butadiene Rubber). The deal follows a letter of intent signed by the parties in February 2011.

The new company called JSR BST Elastomer Co., Ltd. will be incorporated with 51 percent of the total shares held by JSR and 49 percent held by BST by the end of June. The new manufacturing plant for S-SBR (Solution Polymerisation Styrene-Butadiene Rubber) is scheduled to start operation in June 2013 with a capacity of 50,000 tons per year with the ability to expand to 100,000 tons per year as the market demands, but nominally scheduled for 2015.

Currently, JSR is in progress of increasing its capacity by 25,000 tons to reach 60,000 tons in total in November 2011 at the Yokkaichi Plant. Also, JSR has manufacturing capacity of 30,000 tons/year of S-SBR based on the capacity right agreement with Styron Europe, GmbH (formally known as Dow Europe) starting from 2009. By adding significantly large manufacturing capability in Thailand that is the heart land of tyre manufacturing in Asia, JSR will be able to supply high performance S-SBR to meet the strong demand from the tyre industry and actively move forward to expand the S-SBR business globally.

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Press release from JSR Corp