ENEOS NUC Corp., a wholly–owned subsidiary of ENEOS Corp. (Tokyo, Japan), announced its facility investment plan to expand production capacity of polyethylene, used for insulation applications on extra high–voltage and high–voltage power cables that are in growing demand as a result of development of renewable energy sources, by approximately 30,000 tons.
Backed by the worldwide movement toward decarbonization, development of renewable energy sources is underway on the global scale, with development accelerating for distributed power supply that are located far from the areas of demand, such as offshore wind power generation. In response to these developments, demand for polyethylene used in insulation of extra high–voltage and high–voltage power cables is growing rapidly mainly in Asia and Europe.
Since growth of this demand is anticipated to continue in the medium–to–long term, NUC plans to make a capital investment of approximately 12 billion yen and boost the production capability of the products at its Kawasaki Plant by approximately 30,000 tons. The facility is scheduled to be completed in July 2023 and commence commercial operation in December 2023.
Extra high–voltage and high–voltage power cables require extremely high quality due to their importance as key infrastructure in society. For this reason, the production of polyethylene for powercable insulation requires technology that achieves outstanding insulation properties to ensure prevention of power leakage and removal of very fine foreign matter in the product.
NUC possesses the special technologies, owned only by a few companies around the world and has been developing and manufacturing polyethylene for insulation applications for more than 30 years, marketing its products mainly to power cable processing manufacturers in Asia. In addition to these technologies, the company has gained the world–class recognition for the outstanding quality performance of its products even over extended periods of use. It intends to capture new demand through enhancement of its production capability and further strengthen its competitiveness.