Mitsui Chemicals & SKC Polyurethanes Inc. establish joint- venture MCNS

(Mitsui Chemicals & SKC Polyurethanes Inc.)

Birth of Global Polyurethane Manufacturer with Production Capacity of 720,000 tons

MCNS, the US$ 1.1 billion joint venture of Korea-Japan polyurethane manufacturers, officially founded on July 1

MCNS (Mitsui Chemical & SKC Polyurethanes Inc.), the polyurethane company jointly founded last December by SKC (CEO Jeong Gi-bong) and Mitsui Chemical (CEO Tsutomu Tannowa), officially started business on July 1. The joint-venture company with assets worth US$1.1 billion and annual sales of US$ 1.5 billion will be jointly managed by SKC and Mitsui Chemical. The two companies will each have a 50% stake in the business _ base_d on investment in kind. The new company will be _ base_d in Seoul, Korea, and will be managed jointly by CEO Won Gi-don[p1] , currently in charge of SKC’s Chemicals Division, and Ishimaru Hiroyasu, currently in charge of Mitsui Chemicals’ Urethane Division.

Birth of global polyurethane manufacturer with PU 720,000 ton production capacity

The joint-venture company will integrate SKC's polyol and system products with Mitsui Chemical's polyol, MDI, TDI, and system products, and will operate fifteen production plants in nine countries with a combined production capacity of 720,000 tons (280,000 tons of polyol, 200,000 tons of MDI, 120,000 tons of TDI, and 120,000 tons of system products).

"We established a joint venture company in a bid to bring about structural changes to our business portfolio and foster innovation, due to increasing volatility and uncertainty in the global chemistry industry. We will give our full support to this joint venture, so that it can grow as a global top-tier polyurethane company," said Jeong Khee-bong, CEO of SKC.

Synergy of joint-venture company : Providing total PU solutions and cross-marketing

Along with the PO synergy of SKC, both companies, through the JV, can provide total solution with a full range of products from _ base_ material to systems enabling them to compete with global makers. Furthermore, global network will be extended with the advantage of six systems houses not overlapped geographically. Not only will this global network enable the two companies to expand their customer _ base_ through cross-marketing of Korean and Japanese companies, but also advance the technical standard by sharing R&D and production technology.



Targeting 2 trillion won sales in 2020 through investments in specialty products

MCNS will expand highly value-added and specialty products and ensure competitiveness in the global market by increasing R&D activities. Business expansion to emerging markets such as Mexico, Russia, and Middle East is planned with the aim of achieving 2 trillion won in sales by 2020 and consolidating its position as a global polyurethane major company.

Outlook for the polyurethane market

Polyurethane is an industrial polymerused as car interior materials, insulations for refrigierators,, LPG/LNG vessels, construction and synthetic resins. The polyurethane market is expected to grow, mainly in Asia,,with an annual growth of 5 ~ 7% Recently, SKC developed jounce bumper, one of the key components of a car suspension, and began to supplyto global suspension manufacturers. The company now aims to become a leading specialty material company by developing specialty products, such as high way rail pad, thernal barrier coatings.