Groundbreaking Ceremony Held for NIPPON SHOKUBAI’s New (Meth) Acrylic Acid Special Esters Plant　―NIPPON SHOKUBAI promotes EO centralization―

NIPPON SHOKUBAI CO., LTD. [Headquarters: Chuo-ku, Osaka, President: Masanori Ikeda, TOKSE:4114.T]　(“NIPPON SHOKUBAI”) announced that yesterday, May 22, 2012, NIPPON SHOKUBAI held a groundbreaking ceremony for a new (meth) acrylic acid special esters plant with an annual production capacity of 20,000 MT/Y at Kawasaki Plant, Kanagawa prefecture, Japan.

NIPPON SHOKUBAI determined to build a new (meth) acrylic acid special esters plant on August 2011 to meet the expected remarkable demand growth of (meth) acrylic acid special esters used mainly for car paints. NIPPON SHOKUBAI satisfies the growing demand and makes its world top-class position firm with this new plant.

◆Feature of the investment
Production capacity: (Meth) acrylic acid special esters 20,000 MT/Y
(Including the current capacity 40,000 MT/Y at Himeji Plant, total capacity will be 60,000 MT/Y in Japan)
Schedule: Mechanical completion – September 2013
Commercial operation – October 2013
Location : New site of Kawasaki Plant, Chidori (acquisition 2007)
Investment amount: Approx. 3.5 billion yen

◆Aim of capacity expansion
・ (Meth) acrylic acid special esters demand has been growing at over 4% annual, NIPPON SHOKUBAI satisfies the growing demand and makes its world top-class position firm.
・ NIPPON SHOKUBAI establishes (meth) acrylic acid special esters’ two domestic production sites in Himeji and Kawasaki. In the future, NIPPON SHOKUBAI will make production and distribution more efficient and enhance the competitiveness with the consolidation; such as EO derivative products in Kawasaki and Non-EO derivative products in Himeji.
・ NIPPON SHOKUBAI promotes EO centralization and Non-EG ratio at Kawasaki Plant by expansion of EO derivative products.

【Contacts】 Investor & Public Relations Dept., NIPPON SHOKUBAI CO., LTD.
TEL: +81-3-3506-7477 E-mail: shokubai@n.shokubai.co.jp