Japanese petrochemical producer Sekisui Chemical plans to boost its chlorinated polyvinyl chloride (CPVC) compounds output capacity in Thailand during October 2025-March 2026 as demand in Asia, especially India, and the Middle East grows.
Sekisui Chemical's Thai subsidiary Sekisui Specialty Chemicals Thailand aims to build a CPVC compounds production plant in Rayong. The new plant is expected to raise the total output capacity of CPVC compounds by 1.6 times. Sekisui Chemical targets start-up of the new plant by the end of March 2026.
The firm declined to disclose detailed capacity and investment figures.
Sekisui Chemical has 60,000 t/yr of feedstock CPVC production capacity in Thailand. CPVC compounds are generated by blending CPVC and additives. The company does not plan to boost manufacturing capacity or procurement volumes of CPVC. The producer said it can boost CPVC compound production without raising the supply of CPVC for now.
The announcement of planned increases in CPVC compound capacity in Thailand follows the launch of the firm's new office in India in June.
The company expects demand for its CPVC compounds to increase further as metal pipelines have been replaced with CPVC resin pipelines, while construction demand has been rising along with economic growth in India and the Middle East.
Sekisui Chemical also manufactures 40,000 t/yr of CPVC in Japan.
Japan produced 1mn t of PVC during January-September, down by 4.9pc from the same period a year ago, according to Japan's Vinyl Environmental Council. Exports dropped by 4.8pc over the year to 428,118t during the period.
