Mitsui Chemicals has announced that it will establish a new plant within Osaka Works, Takaishi, Osaka Prefecture, to produce the APEL series of cyclic olefin copolymers. With its major application in smartphone camera lenses, APEL has seen demand driven by a recent trend toward multi-lens cameras in these devices. The company is therefore looking to set up a supply system able to deal with this increased demand.

 

By establishing the new plant, Mitsui Chemicals’ production capacity for APEL will rise by approximately 50%. Construction on the new plant is starting this month and is slated to wrap up in March 2022.

 

Plans going forward are to further grow Mitsui Chemicals’ APEL business by capturing new demand in applications, such as automotive cameras, head-mounted displays and the medical sector.

 

Mitsui Chemicals is positioning its Performance Polymers Division which includes APEL and is focused on ICT as a growth sector. Through this latest production capacity increase, Mitsui Chemicals expects that it will be able to continue meeting increased demand here for the time being. But to properly respond to further demand growth going forward, Mitsui Chemicals will now begin to also consider its next production increase for the series.