PPS Production Base
Toray Advanced Materials, a Japanese chemical company, completed a polyphenylene sulfide (PPS) resin and compound plant with a production capacity of 11,900 tons in Gunsan city. Toray is planning to utilize the Gunsan plant as a production base to export its products to China.
On July 6, Toray held a ceremony to complete the Gunsan plant in the Saemangeum Industrial Complex in Gunsan, North Jeolla Province. Following three plants in Gumi, North Gyeongsang Province, the plant is Toray’s fourth production facility in Korea.
The Gunsan plant is the world’s first integrated plant that produces sulfureted hydrogen sodium, paradichlorobenzene, PPS resin and PPS compounds. Toray completed the plant in two years after breaking ground on land of 215,000 square meters in July 2014 with an investment of 300 billion won (US$260 million). It can produce 8,600 tons of resin and 3,300 tons of compounds a year.
The reason why Toray chose Gunsan as a PPS production base is that it will be also able to export the products produced in Korea to China benefiting from the Korea-China Free Trade Agreement.
“The Saemangeum Industrial Complex makes it easy for us to supply materials to the plant and gives Toray excellent access to China,” said a representative of Toray. “In the complex, we can secure excellent human resources and enjoy a good connection with partner firms and use nice infrastructure such as ports.”
Toray forecasts that the Korean PPS compound market will grow 10% or more a year on average from 4000 tons in 2013 to 8000 tons in 2020. It also expects that the world PPS compound market grow 9% a year on average from 80,000 tons in 2013 to 140,000 tons in 2020. It is also predicted that demand for PPS compounds will grow in the electric and electronic sectors, especially in newly emerging economies.
Toray is planning to concentrate on developing environmental and low energy use items to meet the demand for eco-friendly cars by making the most of the strengths of the world’s first integrated system.