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.