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| August 18, 2004 |
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| Licensing production technology of acrylic acid and acrylic acid esters |
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| Mitsubishi Chemical Corporation |
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Mitsubishi Chemical Corporation (Head Office: Minato-ku, Tokyo; President: Ryuichi Tomizawa, "MCC") and China National Bluestar (Group) Corporation (Head Office: Beijing, PRC; General Manager: Ren Jianxin, "Bluestar") have reached a mutual agreement on that MCC licenses its production technology of acrylic acid ("AA") and acrylic acid esters ("AE") to Bluestar and MCC acquires partial off-take rights from Bluestar on August 16, 2004.
The outline of the agreement is as follows:
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(1) |
MCC will license its production technology to Bluestar on the production of AA (80KT per year) and AE (120KT per year). A new manufacturing plant will be completed by a subsidiary of Bluestar, Shengyang Paraffin-Wax Chemical Co., Ltd. ("Shengyang PWC") in Shenyang and the production will be commenced from the third quarter of 2006. |
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(2) |
MCC will off-take a certain amount of AA and AE from Shengyang PWC's new manufacturing plant and sell them in Asian markets including China, through a joint venture of MCC and Sasol Chemical Industries Ltd, Sasol Dia Acrylates (Pty) Limited ("Sasol DA") in South Africa. |
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In addition, Mitsubishi Chemical Engineering Corporation will be in charge of basic design and equipment procurement for the new manufacturing plant. |
MCC has developed and enhanced its proprietary production technology of AA and
AE as its core technology, which is highly evaluated worldwide. Last October,
MCC established Sasol DA and has actively expanded its acrylates business in the
worldwide markets. This business alliance with Bluestar was realized in the form
of licensing production technology and off-take rights, reflecting needs of both
companies. Also, this leads to develop and strengthen MCC's acrylates business
in terms of securing AA as raw materials for a joint venture of MCC and Sanyo
Chemical Industries, Ltd., San-Dia Polymers, Ltd., which manufactures super absorbent
polymers ("SAP"), and reinforcing supply system of AE to Asian markets including
China where demand for AE is growing rapidly.
Bluestar is a core company of China National Chemical Corporation (see "Outline
of Bluestar"). As for the construction of the new manufacturing plant in Shenyang,
Bluestar conducted feasibility study with their own production, propylene which
is raw material for AA and AE. In the course it, they reached the excellence of
MCC's production technology in terms of economical efficiency and stability. As
a result, Bluestar requested MCC to license it.
MCC has positioned "total acrylate chain" including upstream such as AA and AE business and downstream such as emulsion and SAP business as core of its petrochemical business, and continues to expand that in the worldwide markets. MCC will cooperate smooth start-up of the new manufacturing plant while maintaining close partnership with Bluestar, and strengthen its business base in Chinese market.
| For further information, please contact |
| Public Relations and Investor Relations Dept., |
| Mitsubishi Chemical Corporation |
| Tel: [+81]-(0)3-6414-3730 |
Outline of Bluestar
| Established in: |
September, 1984 |
| Company name: |
China National Bluestar (Group) Corporation |
| Head office: |
Beijing, PRC |
| General Manager: |
Ren Jianxin |
| Paid in capital |
20 billion CNY |
| Line of business: |
Cleaning, Membrane Industry, New Chemical Materials |
| Net Sales: |
About 10 billion CNY |
| Employees: |
About 50,000 |
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