Toray Industries, Inc, announced its decision to establish a new plant to produce polyphenylene sulfide (PPS) resin TORELINA at its wholly owned South Korean subsidiary Toray Advanced Materials Korea Inc.

The plant, to be established in the Saemangeum Industrial Complex in Gunsan, Jeollabuk-do province of the country, is Toray’s first manufacturing base for PPS resin outside of Japan. The plant is expected to become operational in April 2016 with a capacity to produce 8,600 tons annually, which will boost Toray’s annual production capacity of PPS resin to 27,600 tons together with the existing Tokai Plant.

Moreover, by manufacturing sodium hydrogen sulfide (NaSH) and paradichlorobenzene (p-DCB), the two main raw materials for manufacturing PPS resin at the same plant, Toray intends to make it a cost competitive integrated manufacturing base producing from raw materials to resins.

Further, Toray will simultaneously introduce a compounding facility to carry out design and functional processing on the resins. The facility which will have an annual production capacity of 3,300 tons and Toray aims to start shipping it to customers from October 2015, before the start of PPS resin production.

The PPS resin produced in the new plant that remains after domestic consumption in South Korea shall be supplied to various Toray Group compounding bases led by the ones in China to further promote global business expansion. Toray has also started considering the next phase of production capacity expansion to meet the increasing demand for PPS resins.

PPS resins are super engineering plastics, which are superior in heat resistance, chemical resistance, mechanical strength and flame retardation, and are used in automotive electric components, electric and electrical devices, office automation equipment and housing-related parts, with its applications further expanding.

Global demand for PPS resin compounds is estimated at about 70,000 ton in 2012 and is expected to grow at a high rate exceeding 8% a year in the future. Toray decided to establish the new PPS resin production base in order to cater to the resin’s growing demand.

Toray Group is a comprehensive PPS manufacturer, which offers PPS not only as compounds but also as films and fibers, and is the largest player in the field.

With the establishment of the new production facility announced this time, the group will pursue expansion of its compounds lineup into high-performance and environmentally friendly products, whose demand is expected to grow in the future, and further enhance its position as the world’s No. 1 in the PPS resin field.

Under its medium-term management program “Project AP-G 2013,” which concludes in the current fiscal year, Toray Group sets business expansion in growth fields and regions as one of its basic strategies. With the aim of becoming “a corporate group that continually increases revenues and profits.”

Through these efforts, Toray Group will continue to further expand the resin business by taking on demand in the promising markets of Asia and emerging countries led by China and the growth industries such as automobile, electric and electronics and housing-related parts.