THAILAND: Grand opening ceremony for AN and MMA plants

Asahi Kasei Chemicals is the largest supplier of AN in the high-growth Asian market, and the world’s second-largest AN supplier.  The company is proactively expanding its AN business to meet growing demand as a world-leading business.  It is also expanding its MMA business to meet demand in the growing markets of Asia as well as in Japan.

In line with its business expansion strategy, Asahi Kasei Chemicals (48.5%) established PTT Asahi Chemical Co. Ltd. (PTTAC) as a three-way AN and MMA joint venture together with PTT Public Company Limited (48.5%) of Thailand and Marubeni Corp. (3%) of Japan.  

PTTAC’s 200,000 t/y AN plant is the world’s first propane-process plant, which uses propane directly as feedstock, and its 70,000 t/y MMA plant is an acetone cyanohydrin (ACH) process plant, which uses byproduct hydrogen cyanide from the AN plant as feedstock. The AN plant will use propane from PTT's gas-separation plant. PTT will additionally supply acetone feedstock from its newly completed phenol plant and other utilities.

The groundbreaking for the project was held in June 2008. The project started trial production in Oct. 2012. Full-scale commercial operation began in January 2013.

PTTAC financed the investment through a US$400 million (Bt12 billion) loan from Bank of Tokyo Mitsubishi-UFJ, Mizuho Corporate Bank, Norinchukin Bank, Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp, Sumitomo Trust and Banking, HSBC and ING Bank.

Source: Daily "The Nation", Bangkok; 12 Feb 2013, & Asahi Kasei website

(Syed Rashid Ali, Karachi, Pakistan)