Mitsubishi Plastics, Inc. (Head office: Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo; President Takumi Ubagai) announces that its Chinese subsidiary Wuxi Lingshu Agricultural Film & Material Technology Co., Ltd. (Head office: Wuxi, Jiangsu, China; Chairman Atsushi Obayashi) (“Wuxi Lingshu” hereinafter), which engages in the manufacturing/sales of highly functional films for agricultural greenhouses, today held an opening ceremony for a recently-completed plant. 　

　　As the Company’s agricultural materials business subsidiary, Mitsubishi Plastics Agri Dream Co., Ltd. manufactures such products as films for agricultural greenhouses mainly for the domestic market. In China, the area devoted to greenhouse farming is 70 times wider than the corresponding area in Japan. It is expected that the area will be further expanded and larger and more modern agricultural greenhouses will be built, requiring more functional films. Responding to this trend, the Company seeks to locally produce and supply polyolefin films to be used to cover agricultural greenhouses (“agricultural PO films”) with long-term durability (two to five years), which will likely become common in China. It has spent about 2 billion yen to establish Wuxi Lingshu as a local subsidiary with a plant. The plant was completed in the spring of this year and started commercial operations in August, and the on-site opening ceremony was held today.

　　The ceremony welcomed about 80 attendees, including top officials and other people of City of Wuxi, Xishan District, Wuxi, and Xishan Economic & Technological Development Zone, people involved in the plant construction, and the Company’s customers in China. “I greatly appreciate the supports extended by many people, which enabled us to be here today,” President Ubagai said at the ceremony. “We will strive to provide high-quality and sophisticated products at lower prices so that we can contribute to stable farm production as well as safe and secure food manufacturing in China.” Chairman Obayashi of Wuxi Lingshu commented “Being here in Wuxi endowed with the long history, tradition and natural environment, we will endeavor to become a company that contributes to our customers, employees, China and Japan.”

　　The Mitsubishi Plastics Group will work actively to expand its agricultural materials business in China. It will widely supply to the Chinese market agricultural PO films for covering greenhouses and also use the films in the solar powered plant factories in China, for which Mitsubishi Plastics Agri Dream has been working on verification tests since 2011*. Wuxi Lingshu sets the sales target at 2 billion to 3 billion yen for FY2015.

 

* In Mitsubishi Plastics Agri Dream’s solar powered plant factories, seedlings are first raised in a closed seedling factory that employs artificial light and then transferred to agricultural greenhouses that incorporate advanced films such as agricultural PO films as a covering to control environmental conditions, where vegetables are produced under a year-round planting plan with nutriculture.

 

【Overview of Wuxi Lingshu Agricultural Film & Material Technology Co., Ltd.】
　　Location:No.79, Youshen Road, Xishan Economic & Technological Development Zone, Wuxi, Jiangsu, China
　　Date of incorporation:May 12, 2012
　　Capital:800 million yen
　　Shareholder:Mitsubishi Plastics, Inc. (100% ownership)
　　Representative:Atsushi Obayashi, Chairman, Kazuhiro Yoshimoto, Chief Executive Officer
　　Business:Manufacturing and sales of agricultural PO films
　　Production capacity:Approximately 4,000t / year
　　Plant:Groundbreaking:September 2012
     Commercial operation:August 2013

 

【Photo: Completion Ceremony】

　

【Photo: Agricultural PO Film Plant】

　

【Photo: Agricultural PO Film】

　

  

 

For further information please contact:
Public Relations and Investor Relations office,
Mitsubishi Chemical Holdings Corporation.
TEL: +81-3-6748-7140