Shin-Etsu Chemical : to set up a base in China to manufacture magnet alloys for rare earth magnets

Shin-Etsu Chemical Co., Ltd. (Head Office: Tokyo, President: Shunzo Mori) has established Shin-Etsu (Changting) Technology Co., Ltd., a 100%-owned Shin-Etsu Group company in Fujian Province, China. This company will manufacture magnet alloys, which are an intermediate material for rare earth magnets. The amount invested is ¥1.5 billion, and the production capacity of its plant will be 3,000 tons/year. The new company is scheduled to begin operations in January 2013.

In order to diversify the procurement of rare earths, which become the raw materials for rare earth magnets, for some time Shin-Etsu Chemical has been participating in and cooperating with efforts for new rare-earth mining development worldwide. Now, as a part of these efforts, Shin-Etsu has decided to manufacture rare earth iron boron alloys in China, which has abundant rare earth resources.

Rare earth magnets are used in various motor applications starting with hybrid cars, as well as home appliances such as energy-saving air-conditioners and hard disk drives (HDDs) for personal computers, and in the future, further demand growth is expected in such energy-saving fields such as electric vehicles (EVs) and wind power generation.

Shin-Etsu Chemical is continuously working to reduce its usage amount of rare earths and to assure the stable procurement of rare earths. In addition to working to diversify our procurement sources of rare earth raw materials, we are implementing a new manufacturing technology, the grain boundary diffusion method developed by Shin-Etsu, which cuts in half the amount of dysprosium used in rare earth magnets, and we are making more effective use of rare earths by means of recycling them as raw materials for magnets.

Outline of new Shin-Etsu Group manufacturing company for magnet alloys