CPC teams up with KH NeoChem

CPC Corp. Taiwan will form a USD434 million joint venture with KH NeoChem Co. Ltd. (KHNC) and a Taiwanese bank to produce value-added chemicals in Taiwan’s Kaohsiung province.

CPC and KHNC will be equal partners in the joint venture each holding 47% and 6% will be held by Mega International Commercial Bank. The plant, which will be located at Lin Hai Industrial Park, will be operational in 2019.

The plant will have the capacity to produce 180,000 metric tonnes of isononanol and 21,000 metric tonnes of butene trimer, both used as raw materials to make plastics, lubricants and adhesives.

According to Taiwan’s Investment Commission, KHNC’s investment will be the largest single petrochemical investment by a Japanese company in the country.

KHNC, headquartered in Tokyo, uses a core process called “oxo technology,” For the lubricants industry, it supplies synthetic fatty acids, higher alcohols, special diols and high performance polymers developed by distinct synthesis technologies.  The company was formerly known as Kyowa Hakko Chemical Co., Ltd. and changed its name to KH Neochem Co., Ltd. on April 1, 2012.