Mitsui Forms Venture, Gets Out Of Resorcinol

Mitsui Chemicals and Formosa Plastics Corp. will invest $20 million in a venture that will produce and sell electrolyte solutions used in lithium-ion batteries. Equally owned by both parties, the 5,000-metric-ton-per-year plant is scheduled to start production in May 2014 in the coastal city of Ningbo, in China’s Zhejiang province. Bolstered by growth in the smartphone, tablet, and electric-vehicles markets, demand for lithium-ion batteries is growing strongly in China, Mitsui says. Separately, Mitsui will stop making resorcinol. The decision is the consequence of a major accident in April 2012 that halted production at a complex near Hiroshima, Japan. Production of cymene at the site will restart this summer while that of hydroquinone resumes this month.