Tokyo headquartered Shin-Etsu Chemical will put in ¥20 billion in facility investments at two of Shin-Etsu’s cellulose manufacturing bases – Shin-Etsu Chemical’s Naoetsu Plant in Joetsu City, Niigata Prefecture, Japan and SE Tylose GmbH & Co. KG in Wiesbaden, Germany, a 100%-owned subsidiary of Shin-Etsu Chemical.

The two investment projects are aimed for completion in mid-2019. By expanding its lineup of cellulose products, Shin-Etsu Chemical will capture the broad demand for cellulose products and aim for the further growth of its cellulose business. Shin-Etsu supplies its various cellulose products to its worldwide customers from its production bases in Japan, Europe and the US.

After expanding its cellulose business with the acquisition of Clariant AG (which became SE Tylose) in 2003, Shin-Etsu further expanded its cellulose products production capacity when it began production of hydroxyethylcellulose (HEC), a type of cellulose derivative, at a newly constructed manufacturing facility in the State of Louisiana in the United States, in 2016.

Cellulose derivatives are water-soluble polymers. Their main applications are in the areas of building construction materials and pharmaceuticals. They are also used in other fields such as in foods, automobiles, personal care products and civil engineering.