President Hitoshi Kawahara) hereby announces its decision to optimize the production capacity of its methacrylic resin business’s methyl methacrylate (MMA) plant. The Company also announces that the production and sales volumes for MMA and some other downstream products will be reduced from July 2025 as a result of this change.

Since 1959, Kuraray’s Niigata Plant has been manufacturing MMA and methacrylic resins and other such products that are downstream in the methacrylate chain. In recent years, however, the competitive structure of the market has deteriorated due to changes resulting in an ongoing oversupply. At the same time, maintenance and renewal costs have increased due to the aging of facilities, making the business environment more challenging.
 To secure profitable business continuity and a stable supply of products into the future, we have come to the conclusion that it is essential to strengthen our competitiveness by optimizing the product mix by reducing production capacity while bringing down the cost of facility antiaging measures.

Halve the current production capacity of 67,000 tons/year and cease external sales.

Downstream products:  Reduce production capacity of ammonium sulfate and methacrylic resin molding materials.

*There will be no changes for methacrylic acid (MAA) and methacrylic resin sheet.