Japan: Engineering Mitsui Chemicals to Increase Production of Cyclic Olefin Copolymers
Mitsui Chemicals aims to boost production of the Apel series of cyclic olefin copolymers. Apel is used in smartphone camera lenses and the increased demand of this series has led the company to establish a new plant through which it intends to increase its production capacity by 50 %.
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Japan – Mitsui Chemicals has recently announced that it will establish a new plant within Osaka Works, Takaishi, Osaka Prefecture, to produce the Apel series of cyclic olefin copolymers. Finding its major application in smartphone camera lenses, Apel is meeting with surging demand driven by a recent trend towards multi-lens cameras in these devices. Mitsui Chemicals is therefore looking to set up a supply system which is able to deal with this increased demand.
By establishing the new plant, Mitsui Chemicals’ production capacity for Apel will rise by approximately 50 per cent. Construction on the new plant is starting this month and is slated to wrap up in March 2022. Plans going forward are to further grow Mitsui Chemicals’ Apel business by capturing new demand in applications such as automotive cameras, head-mounted displays and the medical sector.
Mitsui Chemicals is positioning its Performance Polymers Division – which includes Apel and is focused on ICT – as a growth sector. Through this latest production capacity increase, Mitsui Chemicals expects that it will be able to continue meeting increased demand here for the time being. But to properly respond to further demand growth going forward, Mitsui Chemicals will now begin to also consider its next production increase for the series.

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