Mitsubishi's Thai plant

Mitsubishi's Thai plant

TOKYO (AFP): Mitsubishi Rayon Co. Ltd. will set up an acrylic
resin venture this month with the petrochemicals division of Siam
Cement Public Co. of Thailand, a Mitsubishi spokeswoman said
yesterday.

The 50-50 joint venture, Thai MMA Co. Ltd., to be capitalized
at 1.3 billion baht (US$52.5 million), will invest about 12
billion yen to build a plant in Rayong province, southern
Thailand.

The plant will be one of the largest in the Association of
Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), she said.

The plant is to turn out 55,000 tons of acrylic resin monomers
in 1999, increasing to 70,000 tons in 2000, for sale in Thailand,
Malaysia and Indonesia, and for export to Japan.

Annual demand for acrylic resin monomers was estimated at
35,000 tons in Thailand in 1996.

Demand for acrylic resin, which is highly transparent and
widely used in auto lamps and electronic appliance housings, is
expected to grow more than 10 percent a year in Southeast Asia.