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Japan Zeon COP optical film sales increase

Japan's Zeon COP optical film sales increase

Recently, Japan's Zeon Co., Ltd. released the "Financial Performance Introduction for the First Half of Fiscal Year 2024". The report shows that the company's COP/small and medium-sized optical film sales increased by 16% and revenue increased by 34%.

Zeon COP production is mainly in the Mizushima plant, and production capacity is gradually increasing, but it is expected to reach the effective upper limit. By 2028, production capacity will reach its limit. In order to meet the stable demand for COP, Zeon decided to build a new COP plant in the southern part of Shu, 200 kilometers away from the Mizushima plant. COP and optical films are expected to become growth drivers, and Zeon decided to make an investment with a 10-year outlook. Through this portfolio reorganization, the goal is to transform into a specialty chemicals company. The construction of the new plant is expected to be completed in the next two years and will be gradually put into production. By then, the new plant will become one of the company's largest COP production bases in the world, with an annual production capacity of tens of thousands of tons.

According to the data, Japan's Zeon was founded in 1950 and is jointly funded by Furukawa Electric Co., Ltd., Yokohama Rubber Co., Ltd., and Nippon Light Metal Co., Ltd. Its main business consists of a series of products made from various components extracted from C4 and C5 fractions in naphtha using unique technology. High-purity butadiene is extracted from the C4 fraction using Zeon's unique GPB method to manufacture synthetic rubber and synthetic latex. The GPI method is used to extract isoprene, isoprene, dicyclopentadiene, 2-butyne and other components from the C5 fraction to manufacture synthetic rubber, petroleum resin, cycloolefin polymer, synthetic fragrance and other products.

Zeon is at the world's leading level in the fields of synthetic rubber, synthetic latex, thermoplastic elastomers, etc. In recent years, the company has increased its investment in functional membrane materials, electronic materials and other fields, and its business revenue has grown steadily, becoming the company's second largest business segment. In 2021, the company released its business development plan for 2030, identifying lithium-ion battery separator materials and COP materials as business directions that need to be strengthened in the future.