News

Kuraray Co., Ltd. (Headquarters: Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo; President: Fumio Ito) announces that it has purchased land located in La Porte, Texas, through its local, wholly owned U.S. subsidiary, Kuraray America, Inc. (also located in Texas, hereinafter "KAI"). Details are provided below.

Location

13100 Bay Area Boulevard, La Porte, Texas 77571 U.S.A.
(Around 1 mile north of KAI's EVAL and SEPTON plant)

Land area

81 acres (328,000m2)

Reason for land purchase

Under our strategic plan to expand Kuraray's core business of Vinyl Acetate Chemical chains centering on Polyvinyl Alcohol (PVA), the decision to acquire the land was taken as it had been deemed necessary to secure land in preparation for plant construction in the United States.

KAI company overview

Name Kuraray America, Inc.
President Kenichi Abe
Capitalization U.S.$10.1 million (100% investment by Kuraray Holdings U.S.A., Inc.)
Employees Around 210 people
Principal businesses Imports and sales in the United States of Kuraray chemical and textile products as well as dental materials; manufacture and sales of EVAL and SEPTON in the Americas
Address 2625 Bay Area Boulevard, Suite 300, Houston, Texas 77058-1551, U.S.A.

Kuraray Group's annual production capacity of Vinyl Acetate and PVA resin

Vinyl Acetate Kuraray Okayama Plant 150,000 tons
PVA Kuraray Okayama Plant/ Niigata Plant 124,000 tons
Kuraray Asia Pacific Pte. Ltd. (Singapore) 40,000 tons
Kuraray Europe GmbH (Germany) 70,000 tons*
Total 234,000 tons
  • This figure is the current production capacity and will expand to 94,000 tons (+24,000 tons) after the completion of facility expansion at the first quarter of fiscal 2013 (planned). And the total PVA production capacity will expand to 258,000 tons.