Asian Urethanes Venture Set

Mitsui Chemicals and SKC are forming an equally owned polyurethane joint venture that will include assets from both companies. The firms expect that the venture, officially starting business on April 1, will achieve $2 billion in annual sales by 2020, up from a pro forma figure of $1.5 billion today. The venture will incorporate Mitsui’s 50% share in Kumho Mitsui Chemicals, which operates a methylene diphenyl diisocyanate plant in Yeosu, South Korea. It will absorb SKC’s polyols facility in Ulsan, South Korea. And it will temporarily operate a toluene diisocyanate plant in Kashima, Japan, that Mitsui intends to close in 2016. The venture will also inherit polyurethane system houses in China, Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, the U.S., and Poland. Mitsui, which mostly produces industrial chemicals in Japan, has been closing older facilities in recent years to invest in more advanced materials. SKC is based in South Korea.