Japan's largest LCP producer will build a new 5,000-ton/year LCP project in Taiwan

Recently, Polyplastics decided to build a new polymerization plant with an annual output of 5,000 tons of LCP in Kaohsiung, Taiwan.

It is understood that the project is constructed by Polyplastics Taiwan Co., Ltd. (PTW factory) and is expected to be put into production in the first half of 2024. The PTW plant is a joint venture company invested by Polyplastics (75% investment) and Changchun Group (25% investment) to produce and sell engineering plastics. It is headquartered in Taipei and the factory is located in Kaohsiung.

Changchun Group is the second largest petrochemical enterprise in Taiwan, China. Its new chemical material products include liquid crystal polymer LCP, polyvinyl alcohol PVA, Epoxy Resin, PBAT, PBT, PBS, polyvinyl butyral (PVB) film, and POLYSULFONE. PSU, thermoplastic polyester elastomer TPEE, polyethersulfone PES, etc.

Polyplastics was established in 1964 and is the largest LCP manufacturer in Japan. Its new chemical materials products mainly include POM, PBT, LCP, PPS, cyclic olefin copolymer COC, etc.

Polyplastics has an LCP polymerization plant with an annual output of 15,000 tons at the Fuji plant, while PTW has been responsible for the production of LCP product compounding processes. With the new establishment of the LCP polymerization plant, PTW can realize the one-stop production of LCP products from polymerization to composite. In the future, Polyplastics will also expand PTW's LCP polymerization plant. With this, Polyplastics will achieve an annual production capacity of 25,000 tons of LCP polymerization capacity.

The development status and pattern of LCP resin

At present, the global production capacity of liquid crystal polymers is about 78,000 tons/year, concentrated in the United States, Japan and China. Among them, American and Japanese companies account for about 80% of the world's total production capacity, and China only accounts for about 20%. Major overseas production companies include Celanese, Polyplastics, Sumitomo, Solvay, Toray, etc. Among them, Celanese and Polyplastics each account for more than half of the production capacity of the United States and Japan, and the industry is highly concentrated.

American and Japanese companies began mass production of LCP materials in the 1980s. my country entered the LCP field late and relied on imports from the United States and Japan for a long time. Enterprises have been put into production one after another, and the production capacity of LCP materials has grown rapidly. As of 2020, the domestic LCP production capacity will reach 18,000 tons/year. The main production companies include Water Co., Ltd., Fafa Technology, Plite, and Jujia New Materials. Among them, Water Co., Ltd. is China The largest LCP manufacturer. In 2020, Water Co., Ltd. will add 5,000 tons of LCP production capacity and put into operation, with a total production capacity of 8,000 tons per year, accounting for about 45% of the country's total production capacity.

From the demand side, the domestic LCP demand in 2020 is about 30,000 tons. Affected by technology and product quality factors, domestic consumption is highly dependent on imports, and the dependence on imports is about 80%. From the perspective of consumption structure, electronics and electrical appliances are the most important consumption area of LCP, accounting for about 80% of the total consumption. At present, the total consumption for 5G communication is less than 1,000 tons. Driven by the "new infrastructure", it is estimated that in the next five years, the consumption growth rate of LCP in the field of 5G communications will reach more than 30%, and the consumption will reach 4,000 tons by 2025.

Nowadays, the communication speed is getting faster and faster, and 5G communication is also developing rapidly. As the new 5G technology is located in the high-frequency range, it also puts forward higher requirements for the materials of the devices. LCP can well meet people's requirements and is expected to usher in rapid growth.