Opening Ceremony Held for Sumitomo's New S-SBR Plant in Singapore

Mar. 10, 2014

Sumitomo Chemical announced that its wholly owned subsidiary, Sumitomo Chemical Asia Pte Ltd, carried out an opening ceremony on Friday, March 7 for a new solution styrene-butadiene rubber (S-SBR) manufacturing plant constructed in Singapore.

In attendance at the ceremony held at a hotel in Singapore were His Excellency S. Iswaran, Minister, Prime Minister’s Office of Singapore, distinguished guests from Embassy of Japan in Singapore, Singapore’s Economic Development Board (EDB), JTC Corporation, representatives of companies involved in the plant construction and major customers. From Sumitomo Chemical, President Mr. Masakazu Tokura attended the ceremony.

The market of S-SBR is seeing a rapid demand growth as a raw material for high-performance, fuel-efficient tires amid increasingly tightening regulations worldwide on automobile fuel consumption. Given the prospect that the demand for S-SBR is likely to continue developing in the medium to long term, Sumitomo Chemical has located the new S-SBR plant in Singapore because of various advantages the country offers, including its geographical proximity to the vigorously growing Asian market, and availability of a stable supply source for the raw material butadiene as well as benefits from tie-ups with existing businesses of the Sumitomo Chemical Group in the region.

Sumitomo Chemical's S-SBR is manufactured by the Company's proprietary production process technology and advanced polymer modification technology that is a key to achieving higher product performance. The S-SBR has won high praise from customers in the tire manufacturing industries both in Japan and overseas for being a highly fuel-efficient tire material with outstanding abrasion resistance. Going forward, Sumitomo Chemical will continue to expand its S-SBR business globally with increased production capabilities at the new plant in Singapore and its future expansions that are now under consideration, along with the existing 10,000 tons per annum plant in Japan.

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Overview of the New Plant

Location	Merbau area, Jurong Island, Singapore
Production Capacity	40,000 tons/year
Products	Styrene-butadiene rubber for high-performance and fuel-efficient tires
Production Process	Solution polymerization

Overview of Sumitomo Chemical Asia Pte Ltd

Company Name	Sumitomo Chemical Asia Pte Ltd
Establishment	July 1990
Capital	US$151 million
Ownership	Sumitomo Chemical Co., Ltd. 100%
Managing Director	Soji Sakamoto
Business	Manufacture and sale of petrochemical products

Contact

Corporate Communications Office.
27-1, Shinkawa 2-chome, Chuo-ku, Tokyo, 104-8260, Japan
TEL: +81-3-5543-5102 FAX: +81-3-5543-5901