Mobility Business Sector
Providing unique materials, features, and services to help solve social challenges
and achieve sustainable business growth
Business Vision
Challenges and needs of society
- Reduction of environmental impact in the supply chain
- Lightweighting and utilization of sustainable materials, including recycled materials and biomass materials
- Energy conservation and increased utilization of renewable energy
- More comfortable mobile space and higher functionality of vehicle cabins amid advances in CASE and MaaS
Issues
Insufficient production and supply capacity to respond to market changes and rising demand; establishment of a flexible production system
Market analysis and strategies
Risks and opportunities
- Delayed recovery in automobile demand and production due to global economic stagnation and supply chain disruptions
- Changes in the important players and development cycle of automotive-related components
- Expanding need for materials development associated with lightweighting, increased comfort, and electrification of automobiles
- Expanding utilization of recycled and bio-based raw materials in the context of accelerating efforts to reduce environmental impact
- Creation and expansion of solutions business opportunities driven by a trend toward MaaS in vehicles
Competitive advantages
- Extensive lineup of materials
- Advanced technological capabilities and product quality
- Extensive customer base that taps into our global network
- Technical service
- Ability to propose total solutions across the value chain
Strategies
Materials business
- Focusing sales and development on fields where growth potential and contribution to sustainability overlap with our competitive edge
- Increasing production capacity to meet demand and building resilient production system that maximizes the utilization of global sites
Solutions business
- Pursuing a business model of “concept driving,” created through collaboration with other companies and the functions, technologies, and materials possessed by the Mitsui Chemicals Group
- Exploring business opportunities by providing services that utilize our technologies and expertise
Main Products and Affiliates
Materials business
Elastomers
Ethylene-Propylene Terpolymer (
Mitsui EPT™ ),
Alpha-olefin copolymer (
TAFMER™ ),
Liquid polyolefinic oligomer (
LUCANT™ )
Composite materials
Adhesive polyolefin (
ADMER™ ),
Thermoplastic olefinic elastomer （
MILASTOMER™ ),
Engineering plastics ( ARLEN™ ), PP compounds,
Metal/resin integral molding parts (
POLYMETAC™ ),
Unsaturated polyester ( POLYHOPE™ ),
Molding compound ( POLYMAL™ MAT )
Solutions business
Affiliates
Pick UpElastomers: TAFMER™
― Strengthening profitability through expansion into other applications and higher added value, as well as bolstering supply system for growing demand ―
The Mitsui Chemicals Group’s TAFMER™ enjoys the second highest global market share and highest Asian market share for use in auto bumper and instrument panel materials.
TAFMER™ is a resin modifier and soft molding material with features such as flexibility and light weight that can be used in a wide range of applications. Currently, the solar cell market is expanding rapidly against the backdrop of the spread of renewable energy promoted by various national governments, and use of TAFMER™ as an encapsulant sheet for solar cells is expanding. When used in solar cell encapsulants, compared to conventional EVA-based encapsulant sheets, TAFMER™ can be expected to maintain output for a longer period of time, resulting in improved total power generation, and its low water absorption rate improves water resistance, enabling continued power generation even in harsh environments.
Aiming at future growth of the solar power generation market and capturing growing demand through further development of other applications, we have made a decision to increase production capacity by 120 KT (scheduled for completion in fiscal 2024) to strengthen our supply system.
TopicsMechanical recycling initiatives
― Contributing to the realization of a sustainable society by building a recycling system ―
With an eye to realizing the social implementation of chemical and mechanical recycling, the Mitsui Chemicals Group is working with local governments and brand owners to conduct demonstration testing of resource collection and recycling, as well as to develop recycling-related technologies.
As part of this, we add ADMER™, which is used in applications such as automobile fuel tanks, into the plastic recycling process in an effort to add compatibility to recycled materials and to suppress the degradation of impact resistance. These efforts are expected to contribute to furthering the popularization of plastic recycling.
