Japan’s Mitsubishi Chemical will invest about $590 million to $710 million to build an industrial complex in the US that will use low-cost materials from Dow Chemical and take advantage of cheap North American shale gas, the Nikkei reported.
Mitsubishi Chemical plans to set up an acrylic resin-processing plant next to a planned, one of the world’s largest, Dow ethylene plant in Freeport, Texas. The plant is expected to produce 250,000 million tons per year of acrylic resin materials, making it one of the largest in the world.
Dow Chemical plans to spend around $3.5 billion to build ethylene plant at Freeport with an annual capacity of 1.5 million tons per year of ethylene. The plant is expected to start the operation by 2017.
The two companies will cooperate in creating this new industrial complex.
According to reports the cost saving by producing ethylene from North American shale gas in Texas is at about 95 per cent of making them in Japan.
Cheap shale gas is prompting petrochemical companies to build new plants in the U.S., intensifying price competition for resin products. Acrylic resin has properties such as high transparency, and is used in liquid display panels, auto lamps as well as construction materials.
