Shin Etsu Chemical : to construct a rare earth magnet manufacturing plant in Hai Phong Province in Vietnam

2014.04.21

Aim is to strengthen Shin-Etsu's rare earth magnet supply system through having plural magnet sintering process plants in order to correspond to the expansion of the automobile market

Shin-Etsu Chemical Co., Ltd. (Head Office: Tokyo, President, Shunzo Mori) has decided to establish a new rare earth magnet manufacturing plant in the Socialist Republic of Vietnam.
The manufacturing capacity of the new plant will be 2,000 tons/year and the investment amount is about ¥12 billion. The new plant will be built in two phases on land that Shin-Etsu Chemical's Group company in Vietnam, Shin-Etsu Magnetic Materials Vietnam, owns in Hai Phong Province. The construction work will start in October 2014. The first-phase portion of the plant construction work is scheduled to be completed in September 2015 with a production capacity of 1,000 tons/year and the second-phase portion to be completed in September 2016 with another 1,000 tons/year of capacity.
There are two objectives to be achieved with the construction of the new plant. One is to have plural sintering process and to ensure the stable supply of rare earth magnets to Shin-Etsu's customers, and the other is to steadily capture the expected growth in demand for applications of these magnets, particularly focusing on automobile applications.
The rare earth magnet manufacturing process is broadly divided into two key processes: sintering and machining. So far, among Shin-Etsu Chemical's rare earth magnet production bases, Shin-Etsu's Takefu Plant in Fukui Prefecture in Japan was the only base that carried out the sintering process. The new plant that we are establishing in Vietnam is scheduled to set up a sintering process same as the one at the Takefu Plant, and by having plural production bases for this process we will be able to achieve a dispersion of risk. With the construction of the new plant, our total production capacity for the sintering process will become about 1.5 times greater.
Previously in Vietnam, in 2012 Shin-Etsu Chemical established Shin-Etsu Magnetic Materials Vietnam, a Group company that carries out the separation and refinement of rare earths, which are the main raw materials for rare earth magnets. Its plant began operations in 2013.
The new rare earth magnet plant will be built on land next to this separation and refinement plant and it will receive the supply of raw materials from this plant. Then, the rare earth magnets that are produced at the new plant will be shipped to Shin-Etsu's customers after being processed at the magnet machining plants that Shin-Etsu Chemical has established elsewhere in Southeast Asian countries.
Rare earth magnets are used in a wide range of applications such as in automobile applications starting with hybrid cars, energy-saving air conditioners, and hard disk drives. Shin-Etsu Chemical will make its supply system for its customers around the world rock solid, and at the same time, we will proactively act to be certain to capture the expected large growth in demand and work to expand our rare earth magnet business.

Location of Shin-Etsu Magnetic Materials Vietnam Co., Ltd.

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