Recently, Asahi Kasei announced that the company's shareholders' meeting resolved to terminate the operation of its subsidiary PTT Asahi Chemical Co, Ltd (PTTAC) and dismantle its factory facilities. It is planned to end production on October 31, 2024, end sales on December 31, 2024, and dismantle the factory facilities from 2025 to 2028.

Regarding the reason for the closure, Asahi Kasei said that starting around 2022, the company's competitiveness declined due to the continued sluggish economic environment and rising raw material costs. In addition, due to the increase in production capacity in China and the deterioration of the supply and demand balance, the profitability is unfavorable. The two companies believe that PTTAC's good operation is difficult to continue to move forward and decided to stop operations.

According to the information, PTTAC was established in 2006. It is a joint venture in Thailand in which Asahi Kasei and PTT Global Chemical Public Company Limited (PTTGC) each hold a 50% stake. It mainly produces and sells acrylonitrile (AN) produced by the propane process, methyl methacrylate (MMA) produced by the ACH process, and ammonium sulfate, mainly supplying Southeast Asian customers.

In September this year, Sumitomo Chemical announced on its official website that it would shut down two of the three MMA and PMMA production lines at its wholly-owned subsidiary in Singapore by the end of September 2024, resulting in a reduction of about 80% in the plant's MMA monomer capacity and about 70% in PMMA capacity. Regarding the capacity closure, Sumitomo Chemical said that although the market conditions for MMA monomer and PMMA showed signs of recovery after a period of significant slowdown, their production capacity, especially in Asia, is expected to continue to expand in the future. In this case, it is difficult to ensure stable sales volume and profit margins in the medium and long term, especially in the field of general-grade products. Therefore, after the capacity cuts, Sumitomo Chemical will focus on specialty and high value-added PMMA products.