650 Million Euro Investment Shin-Etsu Chemical to Expand its Silicones Portfolio

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Shin-Etsu Chemical has plans to expand its silicones business by further investing an additional amount of 650 million euros into it. The move is in line with the growing demand for eco-friendly silicones in the region.

Tokyo/Japan – Shin-Etsu Chemical has recently announced that it would make a new 650 million euros (¥100 billion) investment in its silicones portfolio, one of the core parts of its Functional Materials business segment.

In February 2022, Shin-Etsu announced an investment plan worth ¥80 billion in order to meet the strong demand from customers for its advanced functional silicone products. While the investments under the plan have been almost implemented, the demand for high-performance silicone products has continued to grow since then.

Especially, there are high expectations for eco-friendly products that are useful for promoting the goal of carbon neutrality, and the demand for them will continue to grow. In response to the demand from society and its customers, the firm will expand the applications of its silicones products and work to enhance the advanced functionality of its product line-up and expand its environmentally friendly silicones. These are the purposes of this new investment plan.

Leveraging its strong advanced technologies regarding silicones, Shin-Etsu's silicones products have been contributing to realizing smaller as well as lighter-weight end products, from aircraft to electric vehicles. In addition, its silicones products are also helping to extend the service lifetime of end products because of their advantage of long-term stability.

Furthermore, the company is contributing to the reduction of the environmental load by developing products that help achieve resource, energy, and electric power saving. Such products are used in a wide range of fields, including the automotive, semiconductor and communications industries. They are used, for example, in heat-dissipating sheets, which are essential for the ongoing transition to electric vehicles (EVs), as well as in components incorporated into wind power-generation systems, a renewable energy source whose installations are greatly increasing.

Shin-Etsu's silicones products also contribute to the reduction of greenhouse gases, not only in its customers' manufacturing processes but also in the usage stage of the final products. Examples of such products are Shin-Etsu's high-consistency silicone rubber and the firm’s advanced LIMS (Lquid Injection Molding System) materials, both of which do not require post-curing (reheating) after molding, and the company’s silicones are used for low-temperature curing release paper.

Under Shin-Etsu's newly announced silicones investment plan, in addition to implementing investments for its main silicones production hub in Japan, the Gunma Complex in Gunma Prefecture, the firm will also make new investments in its Naoetsu Plant in Niigata Prefecture, the Takefu Plant in Fukui Prefecture and the Group company plant in Thailand, where silicone monomer and polymer production is carried out. The company will also invest further in its existing silicone plants in other Asian countries, the United States and Hungary.

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