Plants: Mitsubishi ups capacity for carbon fibre in Japan, US; Westlake to close vinyl/styrene plants in US

Japan’s Mitsubishi Chemical Corporation has decided to double its carbon fibre production capacity in Japan and the US for high-end applications across the sports and leisure, aerospace, hypercar, and other sectors.

In Japan, the plant is located in the Aichi area (Toyohashi-shi, Aichi, Japan) and in the US it is located in Sacramento, California. The phased enhancement will be undertaken from 2025 to 2027.

As the need for lightweight and high-performance products in the sports and leisure, aerospace, and hypercar sectors has increased in recent years, demand for carbon fibre for high-end applications has been steadily expanding.

The fibre featuring strength and elastic modulus is intended for high-end applications,

Going forward, Mitsubishi Chemical says it will continue to capture market growth, create and deliver value to its customers and, by focusing on high value-added businesses, pursue further profit growth.

Meanwhile in other news, due to what it says are persistent, challenging market conditions facing the global commodities chemicals industry, chemical firm Westlake says it intends to close several North American chlorovinyl and styrene facilities, a move that will cut 295 jobs and result in US$415 million in total pre-tax costs in Q4.

Westlake has said it will cease operations at its polyvinyl chloride (PVC) plant in Aberdeen, Mississippi, which has an annual capacity of 1 billion lbs of suspension PVC; its vinyl chloride monomer plant in Lake Charles, Louisiana, which has an annual capacity of 910 million lbs of VCM; and one of its diaphragm chlor-alkali units at the Lake Charles site, with an annual capacity of 825 million lbs of chlorine and 910 million lbs of caustic soda.

The company added it plans to continue supplying customers with PVC, VCM and chlor-alkali products from its seven other North American chlorovinyl facilities. Following the closures, the company expects to have aggregate annual production capacity of approximately 5,520 million lbs of suspension PVC globally, including 4,900 million lbs in North America, 7,630 million lbs of VCM globally, including 6,050 million lbs in North America, and 6,680 million lbs of chlorine and 7,510 million lbs of caustic soda globally, including 5,410 million lbs of chlorine and 6,100 million lbs of caustic soda in North America.

The company also approved a plan to cease operation of its styrene production plant located at the Lake Charles, Louisiana site, which has an annual production capacity of approximately 570 million lbs of styrene.

The company expects it will incur total pre-tax costs of approximately US$415 million related to the closures of the facilities consisting of noncash accelerated depreciation, amortisation, and asset write-off charges of approximately US$357 million, employee severance and separation costs of approximately US$25 million, and other plant shut down costs of approximately US$33 million.

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