Mitsui Chemicals Expands Production Facilities for Meltblown Nonwovens

2020.03.24

Mitsui Chemicals, Inc.

Mitsui Chemicals, Inc. (Tokyo: 4183; President & CEO: TANNOWA Tsutomu) has expanded its production facilities for meltblown nonwovens at wholly owned subsidiary Sunrex Industry Co., Ltd. (President: YUASA Hiroshi), starting operations at the new facilities here this January. The move comes as an effort to respond to growing demand for industrial-use meltblown nonwovens, and will increase the Mitsui Chemicals Group’s overall production capacity for these materials by 50 percent.

Meltblown Nonwovens
サンレックス工業外観
Sunrex Industry’s plant

Overview of facility expansion and Sunrex Industry:

1. Products Meltblown nonwovens (product name: SYNTEX™ MB)
2. Company name Sunrex Industry Co., Ltd.
3. Location 1 Asakecho, Yokkaichi, Mie Prefecture, 512-8501
4. Business Production of nonwovens and nonwoven-related products
5. Establishment 1986
6. Capital 240 million yen (100% owned by Mitsui Chemicals)
7. Scale of expansion Single line (50% increase)
8. Expansion schedule Start of construction August 2018
End of construction June 2019
Start of business operations January 2020

Mitsui Chemicals is positioning its nonwovens business as a growth sector, making efforts here to supply high-quality nonwovens as industrial materials for a variety of applications. This includes use in car seats (product name: TAFNEL™), masks (product name: SYNTEX™) and agricultural sheets (product name: SYNTEX™). With particular respect to SYNTEX™ MB nano, marketing efforts are going toward use in filters and other such applications that will take advantage of the meltblown nonwovens line’s superfine fibers, which are no more than several hundred nanometers in diameter.

Through this latest facility expansion, Mitsui Chemicals plans to further bolster and grow its business for nonwovens going forward.