Shin-Etsu Makes First Major China Investment

Japan’s Shin-Etsu Chemical will spend $95 million to build a plant in China to produce silicone-based rubber materials. With a capacity of 25,000 metric tons per year, the new facility in Nantong, a city about 60 miles north of Shanghai, will come on-line next year and initially produce general-purpose silicone rubber. Although China is a major market for Shin-Etsu, Japan’s most profitable chemical maker, the company has until now refrained from making large investments there because it perceived the political risk to be too great. Shin-Etsu’s biggest investment in China until this point was a $3 million silicone rubber finishing and compounding facility.