Borealis AG and its US subsidiary, Borealis Compounds LLC, have entered into manufacturing and supply agreements with affiliates of Mitsubishi Chemical Corporation (MCC) to improve the supply of polypropylene compounds (PP/CP) to the automotive industry in Europe and the United States.
The agreements are intended to aid all companies in meeting demand and enhancing the competitiveness of their automotive customers, through localised production and supply of high-quality, high-performance PP/CP materials, a statement said.
High-performance PP/CP materials are widely used in the production of exterior and interior automotive components including bumpers, instrument panels, door trim panels and other interior applications to meet the manufacturing performance, weight-saving and fuel reduction demands set by global automotive manufacturers.
Borealis will use its proprietary Borstar technology to manufacture high-performance, speciality polypropylene compounds in accordance with a formula developed by Mitsubishi Chemical Europe GmbH. This formula is licensed by Japan Polypropylene Corporation (JPP), a joint venture between MCC and Chisso Corporation.
Borealis Group and MCC Group both are well established in the global automotive industry in several regions. Borealis Group has PP/CP facilities in Europe and Brazil (through joint ventures between Borealis AG and Braskem SA) and MCC Group has PP/CP facilities in Japan, the US, China, Thailand and India.
Mark Garrett, Borealis chief executive, states: “We are excited to be working with JPP in a way that brings us even closer to our international automotive customers. Automotive OEMs produce vehicles on global platforms. As material producers we must therefore have capacity to supply high-quality, high performance PP/CP and provide best-in-class service to customers globally.”
JPP president, Masahiro Abe commented: “We believe that the agreements with Borealis will further improve our ability to fulfil our customer’s demand for polypropylene and will consolidate our position as a global supplier to the European automotive sector.”
The manufacturing and supply agreement for PP/CP in Europe was signed by Borealis AG (Vienna) CEO Mark Garrett and Mitsubishi Chemical Europe GmbH (Dusseldorf) CEO Ryu Hasegawa. The latter company is 100 per cent owned by MCC.
The manufacturing and supply agreement for PP/CP in the US was signed by Mytex Polymers, owned fully by MCC through a subsidiary, and Borealis Compounds.