Expansion of Automotive Use Polypropylene Production in North America

July 11, 2011

Expansion of Automotive Use Polypropylene Production in North America

Mitsui Chemicals, Inc. (Toshikazu Tanaka, President & CEO) and Prime Polymer Co., Ltd. (Yasuhiko Ohtawa, President) announced a 27,000 ton production augmentation of polypropylene at United States and Mexico production facilities to meet growing demands of the automotive materials sector.

Outline of Expansion

Advanced Composites

・14,000 ton increase in production from new line (tentative commercial operation 1Q 2012)

Advanced Composites Mexicana

・13,000 ton increase in production from new line (tentative commercial operation 2Q 2012)

As a fundamental strategy of the 2011 Mid-Term Business Plan, the Mitsui Chemicals Group targets further global expansion of its polypropylene for automotive materials operations. The Group already boasts world-class competitiveness in this material which operations are chiefly overseen by its subsidiary, Prime Polymer.

Demand for automotive materials, which took a downward swing in late 2008 as a result of the global recession, has recently regained momentum not only in emerging markets such as China and India, but also in North America.

The Mitsui Chemicals Group has targeted to strengthen and expand polypropylene production in major world markets (Japan, United States, Europe, Thailand, China, and India). The current production augmentation in the United States and Mexico will reinforce the Company’s already world class production capability for polypropylene use in the automotive sector.

Mitsui Chemicals and Prime Polymer will strategically strengthen and expand operations through ongoing collaboration and reinforcement of production, sales, and technological support structures

, which is necessary in providing state-of-the-art, performance-driven materials to meet the needs of globally expanding automotive manufacturers.