Showa Denko to license VAM technology to Shenghong China

Japanese firm Showa Denko is to license its technology to produce vinyl acetate monomer (VAM) to Shenghong Refining Petrochemical (Lian Yun Gang) China, under a formal alliance agreement between SDK and KBR, a global engineering and technology solutions company based in the US. In addition, SDK will provide catalysts for the VAM production facility to be constructed by Shenghong Refining Petrochemical (SRP).

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SDK has been producing VAM from ethylene at its Oita Petrochemical Complex for 40 years, and has polished high-level technologies including that to develop catalysts. SDK formed an alliance with KBR in 2015, and since then, the two parties have been investigating possibilities to operate business to license SDK’s technologies to produce organic chemicals. As a result, SRP decided to adopt SDK’s technologies to produce VAM. The new VAM unit to be constructed in the premise of SRP is expected to have a capacity to produce 300,000 tonnes/year of VAM.

In its petrochemicals segment, which operates organic chemicals business including VAM production, Showa Denko has been making effort to strengthen its business. Toward the future, SDK will continue aiming to make its petrochemicals business the most competitive one in East Asia by enhancing competitiveness of Oita Petrochemical Complex through commercialisation of new derivatives and expanding its licensing business, it said.