AGC Inc. (Tokyo) decided to increase the production capacity of AGC Vinythai Public Co. Ltd. (to be established in July 2022), a new company to integrate AGC’s chlor-alkali business in the Indochina Peninsula. The capacity increase is planned at two manufacturing sites* in Thailand, and the start of operation is scheduled for 1Q 2025. The total investment is expected to exceed 100 billion yen, making it the largest investment ever made by the AGC Group.
With this expansion, AGC’s annual production capacity of chlor-alkali products in Southeast Asia will increase to 1.64 million tons of caustic soda (currently 1.42 million tons), 1.7 million tons of vinyl chloride monomer (VCM) (currently 1.3 million tons), and 1.6 million tons of polyvinyl chloride (PVC) (currently 1.2 million tons).
Caustic soda and PVC are indispensable materials for the development of urban infrastructure such as water and sewage systems and for a wide variety of industrial products, and the Southeast Asian market for both products is expected to grow at about 4% per year on the back of continued expansion in manufacturing and infrastructure projects in line with economic growth. In order to respond to this robust demand, AGC has been studying this expansion and has obtained approval for the environmental impact assessment by the Thai environmental regulatory authority and has now decided to make the investment. In addition, this capacity expansion will introduce the latest technologies that will improve energy efficiency and production efficiency to reduce environmental impact.