Mitsui Chemicals & SKC Polyurethanes (MCNS), a 50-50 joint venture (JV) between Mitsui Chemicals and SKC (Seoul), have announced plans to establish a polyurethanes systems house in India. The JV has formed a subsidiary, MCNS Polyurethanes India, this month at Sri City, to build a plant with a capacity of 13,000 metric tons/year. The facility will produce polyurethane foams, including foams based on polyols, to cater to individual customer needs. Construction is scheduled to start next month with completion slated for December. Commercial operations are planned for January 2018.
Mitsui Chemicals says demand for polyurethanes in India is expected to increase. The country produces 4 million cars and 9 million refrigerators every year. Many Japanese and Korean auto and home appliance manufacturers already have a presence in India, especially in the south of the country.

Energy firm PTT (Bangkok, Thailand) is consolidating its petrochemical interests into its 48.9%-owned affiliate PTT Global Chemicals (PTTGC). PTTGC is acquiring some or all of PTT's shares in six subsidiaries worth 26.3 billion baht ($751.7 million), according to PTTGC CEO Supattanapong Punmeechaow. The move aims to bring all petrochemical-related businesses under one umbrella to ease operations and improve efficiency. The PTT board earlier this week approved transferring the six subsidiaries to PTTGC, which will make it the main chemicals arm of PTT. Most of the six units were joint ventures (JVs) involving PTT because PTTGC, at the time of the JVs were formed, was too small to be the partner. The transactions will be concluded by October this year.