Two synthetic rubber plants to be set up on Jurong Island

Sumitomo Chemical, Asahi Kasei to keep Lanxess company on Jurong Island
Ronnie Lim Business Times 15 Dec 10;

THE seeds planted at Jurong Island for synthetic rubber have germinated. Two more investors, Sumitomo Chemical and Asahi Kasei Chemical, are setting up their latest S-SBR plants there - believed to cost hundreds of millions of dollars each - joining Germany's Lanxess which is building a 400 million euros (S$712 million) butyl rubber facility on the island and also considering a second plant for Nd-PBR there.

Like the butyl rubber to be produced by Lanxess, the two Japanese companies' solution styrene-butadiene rubber (S-SBR) is used mainly by tyre makers to produce fuel-efficient (abrasion-resistant), high- performance tyres. Other uses include for industrial hoses, conveyor belts, flooring and gloves.

All three incoming synthetic rubber plants here will start up in 2013, which is none too soon given the rapidly-growing demand for synthetic rubber from tyre makers, most of whom have shifted their global production to Asia.

It is perhaps ironic that Singapore - where the first natural rubber tree in this region was successfully transplanted to in 1877, from seedlings taken from Brazil to the Kew Gardens in the UK - is now hosting the slew of synthetic rubber plants, which will produce a substitute for more-expensive natural rubber.

The Japanese S-SBR plant investments - confirmed over the last few weeks in Tokyo - are complementary to that by Lanxess, an industry source said. Building of the latest plants is set to start next year.

What attracted them to Jurong Island is the availability of raw materials like butadiene and styrene from the petrochemical crackers here, including Petrochemical Corporation of Singapore (PCS) and Shell's recently-started US$3 billion complex, which includes a butadiene extraction unit.

'Another important factor is the intellectual protection which Singapore provides for the technology,' the source told BT.

Sumitomo Chemical's plant at Merbau sector will produce 40,000 tonnes per annum of S-SBR starting in the fourth quarter of 2013.

The Japanese group, which has one S-SBR plant back home, decided to invest in a second plant in Singapore because of its proximity to the growing Asian market, especially China, India and Thailand, as well as 'secured stable supply of butadiene raw materials, which is likely to be in tight supply in coming years'.

Its Merbau facility will also be able to leverage on the group's existing operations here, like in PCS in which a Sumitomo-led Japanese consortium holds a half share.

Asahi Kasei's S-SBR Singapore facility, which will be built at the new Tembusu sector of Jurong Island, will be larger - starting with a first phase 50,000 tpa facility due to start production in June 2013.

Explaining the rationale for its investment, the company said that 'with tightening environmental regulations and heightened environmental awareness, demand for high-performance tyres which provide improved fuel efficiency is growing worldwide'.

It therefore decided to expand its current synthetic rubber production of 140,000 tpa of S-SBR at two Japanese plants in Kawasaki and Oita by investing in Singapore.

Asahi Kasei said that it eventually intends to double its Singapore production of S-SBR to 100,000 tpa under a planned second phase expansion which could see commercial production in the first half of 2015.

Lanxess, whose 100,000 tpa butyl rubber plant here is expected to start production in Q1, 2013, indicated in September that it was meanwhile studying a second plant in Asia for Nd-PBR, another hard-wearing synthetic rubber used for making tyres.

It needs butadiene feedstock for this, and BT reported that Lanxess is discussing this with petrochemical companies here. A decision on the plant site is expected by Q1 next year.