Mitsubishi Drops Fiber Materials In Japan

Mitsubishi Chemical will permanently shut down a 250,000-metric-ton-per-year purified terephthalic acid (PTA) unit in Matsuyama, Japan, and a 100,000-metric-ton plant making the feedstock p-xylene in Mizushima, Japan. The company will move management of its PTA business to Singapore and technology development to Haldia, India. Mitsubishi will continue to operate 200,000 metric tons of PTA capacity in Japan. It has 3.4 million metric tons of capacity in Indonesia, South Korea, India, and China. In addition, a new 800,000-metric-ton PTA facility will open in India in coming weeks. Mitsubishi says it saw no hope of restoring profitability to its Japanese PTA business.