Mitsui and Sinopec Plan Venture To Build Shanghai EPT Facility
Shanghai - Mitsui Chemicals Inc. (MCI) and China Petroleum & Chemical Corp. (Sinopec) have entered into a formal agreement to establish a new joint venture to build an ethylene-propylene-diene terpolymer (EPT) plant in Shanghai, China.
The equally owned venture, tentatively named Shanghai Sinopec Mitsui Elastomers Co. Ltd., is expected to begin op-erations in the second half of 2011.
The venture will invest approximately ¥27-billion to build a 75,000-t/y EPT facility, which is scheduled to begin commercial operations during the first quarter of 2014 using MCI’s metallocene catalyst technology. MCI noted that this will be "the most advanced and one of the world’s largest plants."
Earlier this year, MCI and Sinopec announced plans to in-vest about ¥30-billion to build a facility for the production of 250,000 t/y of phenol and 150,000 t/y of acetone in Shanghai.
Commercial operations are due to begin in the second quarter of 2013.