Teijin expands its DMT supply capacity in Japan
Teijin Ltd. will expand its supply capacity for dimethyl terephtalate DMT used as raw material for producing polyethylene terephthalate (PET) and other specialty chemical applications at its existing Matsuyama Factory in Ehime Prefecture, Japan
Under the expansion a new line processing DMT into high-purity briquettes will be added. Construction is to begin in October 202 and operation take-up is scheduled to April 2013. The expansion will double Teijin’s annual supplies for DMT from actually 50000 to 100000 t and thus becoming one of the largest DMT suppliers in the world. By 2016 the company plans to roughly tripe is current revenue of around JPY five billion from DMT sales.
DMT is a petrochemical 0produced from mixed xylene, then polymerised with ethylene glycol, DMT can be used as raw material for PET, now purified terephthalic acid (PTA) it can be mass-produced at larger facilities and has become the raw material of choice for general purpose PET production. Due to the fact that functional particles can be added to DMT at low temperatures and that DMT dissolves easily in a solvent and easily be made to react and additionally DMT is neutral, offering little interference with the function of additives – all characteristics PTA lacks – there is a an increasing global demand for DMT as raw material for specialty chemical applications, including specialty polyesters, elastomers, adhesives and other alternatives to glass with superior chemical resistance.
Teijin has been producing DMT since 1964 as a raw material for in-house use and production of polyester fibres, films and other materials and with the establishment in the 1980’s of technologies to process DMT into flakes, enabling long-term storage, Teijin began also selling to external parties. The production capacity is 230000 t annually and 100000 t are earmarked to be sold to third parties, today only 50000 t are reserved for that purpose.