Nippon Shokubai Ltd. (Tokyo) has announced a plan to build a superabsorbent polymers (SAP) plant with 50,000 metric tons per year (m.t./yr) at its Indonesian subsidiary, PT. Nippon Shokubai Indonesia (NSI). This new plant will augment an existing SAP plant at NSI, which currently produces 90,000 m.t./yr. Mechanical completion of the new site is expected in January 2027, with commercial operations following in July 2027. The investment is around $110 million.
SAP, one of Nippon Shokubai’s core businesses, shows steady growth in demand as a key material for diapers globally, particularly in the regions where populations are anticipated to increase rapidly. As a result, Nippon Shokubai plans to expand the capacity of NSI, as it had already expanded its production facility for acrylic acid (AA) by 100,000 m.t..yr, resulting in a total AA capacity at the site of 240,000 m.t./yr. NSI can take advantages of its strength from the vertically integrated production from AA to SAP to meet the strong demand growth in Asian region and the expectation for synergistic effect with the existing plant.
Consequently, for the existing SAP production facilities with relatively low productivity in Himeji, Japan, Nippon Shokubai will consider halting production at some of these facilities to optimize Nippon Shokubai’s global SAP supply network in the future.