Ube to build DMC projects in China and the U.S.

On July 6, Japan's Ube Industrial Co.
, Ltd.
(UBE) said that the company has been studying the feasibility of commercializing dimethyl carbonate (DMC) and ethyl methyl carbonate (EMC) in the United States
.
Louisiana has been selected as a candidate for the construction site, and the company will begin basic design (Front-End Engineering Design: FEED)
.
The production capacity is planned to be 100,000 tons/year of DMC and 40,000 tons/year of DMC-derived EMC
.
A final investment decision will be made in the first half of fiscal 2023 and operations will begin in the second half of fiscal 2025
.

The necessity of building a factory in the United States

With the popularity of electric vehicles and the advancement of digitalization, UBE expects that the market demand for DMC is expected to grow further
.
The US has no DMC and EMC production facilities and relies on imports from UBE factories or Chinese manufacturers
.
By building DMC and EMC plants in the U.
S.
, UBE plans to achieve stable supply to customers, and by expanding downstream to environmentally friendly products such as polycarbonate diol (PCD) and waterborne polyurethane dispersion (PUD) as the C1 chemical chain, Expand the company's future business scale
.

DMC is produced from carbon monoxide (CO) using UBE's proprietary gas-phase nitrite process, which features higher quality and fewer by-products than other companies' ethylene-based production methods
.
At the U.
S.
plant, the company will use natural gas as a raw material to limit carbon monoxide emissions and supply cost-competitive products, establishing a solid position as a leader in the field
.

UBE plans to build production base in China

In its mid-term management plan for fiscal years 2022-2024 and long-term vision for 2030, UBE has set a goal to promote local production and meet local consumption by establishing C1 chemical chain production bases in the United States, China and Europe
.
On July 1, 2022, the company established the C1 Chemicals Program to implement the program as an organization under the direct control of the President
.
The project will research and facilitate the establishment of a new DMC and EMC plant in the US, a joint venture and licensing business in China, and green carbon monoxide production of DMC in Europe
.

Ube Industries and Mitsubishi Chemical merged China's electrolyte business in 2016.
The joint venture is Changshu Yuling Battery Materials Co.
, Ltd.
, which is 100% controlled by Japan's MU Electrolyte Co.
,
Ltd.
MU Electrolyte Co.
, Ltd.
is an electrolyte company jointly established by Mitsubishi Chemical and Ube Industries
.