―New Construction of a Production Plant for Thermal Interface Materials for Environmentally-friendly Vehicles
such as EVs in the Netherlands―
SEKISUI CHEMICAL CO., LTD. (President and Representative Director: Teiji Koge, hereinafter called “SEKISUI”) has decided to newly construct a production plant of thermal interface materials for environmentally-friendly vehicles such as electric vehicles (EVs) for SEKISUI POLYMATECH CO., LTD. (CEO: Jun Yamazaki, hereinafter called “SEKISUI POLYMATECH”) in the Netherlands. The new company will oversee the production of thermal interface materials at the said plant and the sales expansion for thermal interface materials in Europe. There are plans to invest approximately 1.6 billion yen in establishing the new company, including construction of the new plant.
The new company to be established in the Netherlands will be a wholly-owned subsidiary of SEKISUI POLYMATECH. Registration of the new company will be completed in August 2018 and construction will start in January 2019. Plant operations are planned to start in spring of 2020.
1. Background
In Europe, many environmentally-friendly vehicles such as EVs and plug-in hybrid vehicles (PHVs) are being developed by original equipment manufacturers (OEMs). It is predicted that the number of such vehicles produced in FY2025 will increase to 12.5 million units, which is approximately 10 times the 2017 figure*1. With this trend, demand for heat countermeasures for the lithium-ion batteries (LiBs) used to supply power to such vehicles is rapidly increasing.
SEKISUI’s High Performance Plastics Company (President: Keita Kato) is expanding its business in the four strategic fields of electronics, automobiles and transportation, buildings and infrastructures, and life sciences. In August 2017, SEKISUI merged SEKISUI POLYMATECH (previous name: Polymatech Japan Co., Ltd.) together with Inabata & Co., Ltd. (President: Katsutaro Inabata) with the aim of enhancing its products in the automobiles and transportation and expanding its business in the electronics field. Since then, it has positioned its thermal interface materials, for which needs are increasing in the automobile industry, as a particularly important product, and is striving to quickly achieve synergy in this field.
SEKISUI POLYMATECH’s thermal interface materials not only offer high thermal conductivity, but also excellent abrasion resistance for dispensing equipment and low outgassing for the product itself. Therefore, they have been highly evaluated by OEMs and LiB manufacturers, and increased adoption accompanying expansion of the environmentally-friendly vehicle market is expected.
In light of these factors, the decision was made to enhance its production capacity by constructing a new plant in Europe, a major supply destination, in addition to its two current production bases in Japan and Thailand, and to establish a new company to perform all operations including production, sales, development and marketing.
*1 According to the “Global Vehicle Production Forecast” by IHS Markit
2. Summary of New Company and Plant
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・Company name |
: SEKISUI POLYMATECH EUROPE BV |
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・Location (head office/plant) |
: Roermond City, Limburg Province, Netherlands*2 |
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・Capital |
: 500,000,000 yen (completely funded by SEKISUI POLYMATECH) |
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・Planned timing for company establishment |
: August 2018 |
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・Planned timing for construction start |
: January 2019 |
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・Planned timing for plant operations start |
: Spring 2020 |
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・Main products |
: Thermal Interface Materials*3 |
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*2 |
SEKISUI has production plants for interlayer films for laminated glass, crosslinking polyolefin foam and rain gutters
in Roermond City in the Netherlands. The new plant will be constructed on land owned adjacent to these existing plants. |
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*3 |
SEKISUI POLYMATECH has a range of both sheet-type and grease-type (semi-liquid) of thermal interface materials.
For the LiBs, particularly, there are strong needs for grease-type products that are suitable for production line automation,
and there is a plan to produce grease-type products as a major product at the new plant for the time being. |
3. Business Objective
The aim of this investment is to enhance SEKISUI POLYMATECH’s grease-type thermal interface material production capacity by approximately three-fold and to achieve sales of 8.5 billion yen for its thermal interface material business in FY2022.
＜Reference＞
[Summary of SEKISUI POLYMATECH]
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・Representative’s name |
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Jun Yamazaki (CEO) |
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・Location |
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Saitama City, Saitama Prefecture |
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・Portion of ownership |
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SEKISUI: 91%, Inabata & Co., Ltd.: 9% |
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・Principal Business |
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Production and Sales of plastics, rubber and chemical products |
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・Overseas expansion |
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Production companies in China, Thailand and Indonesia |
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Sales companies: China, Thailand, Indonesia, US |
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Resident employee offices: Singapore, Germany |
[SEKISUI POLYMATECH’s Thermal Interface Materials]
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Grease-type |
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Sheet-type |
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General purpose type: Low heat conduction |
For carbon fibers: High heat conduction |
Disclaimer
This press release may contain forward-looking statements. Such forward-looking statements are based on current expectations and beliefs and are subject to a number of factors and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such statements due to changes in global economic, business, competitive market and regulatory factors.