OREANDA-NEWS. May 11, 2011. Marubeni Corporation (hereinafter Marubeni) and BRASKEM S.A. (hereinafter BRASKEM) have entered into the long-term purchase agreement of Butadiene, which is used for the production of Synthetic Rubber for automobile tire and other rubber products.

BRASKEM proceeds a project for the additional production capacity of Butadiene, and this plant construction will be completed in the year 2012, Marubeni, which has the global network of the customers across the world market, handles the sales of Butadiene produced by BRASKEM.  This long-term agreement has arisen by the favorable evaluation from BRASKEM to Marubeni’s proposal for the long-term purchase of the product, and integrated works to the projects which BRASKEM is considering for the chemical derivatives. This long-term contract amount values 550 million US dollars.

Marubeni and BRASKEM is discussing further expansion of the trade business and seeking future opportunities for new projects. In addition to the new petrochemical projects in Brazil, both companies promote the cooperation in the various fields and proceed the project together in U.S. and Asia.  Those strategic activities will be accelerated in the potential regions expected following the growth of China and India, the major growing countries in BRICs.

Marubeni is the trading house in Japan which handles the largest amount level of olefin such as Ethylene, Propylene, and Butadiene. Butadiene and its derivatives are positioned as its strategic commodity and accompanied synthetic rubber chain is recognized as its core projects.   As a part of this strategy, Marubeni has invested the largest scale synthetic rubber plant in China Jiangsu Nantong. Additionally, in India, a joint venture company has been established in the year 2010 with Indian Oil Co.,Ltd, the largest public petroleum company in India, and TSRC, a large synthetic rubber manufacturer in Taiwan.  This plant is the first synthetic rubber production facility in India, and planned to begin its operation in 2013.

Butadiene, the feedstock of synthetic rubber, is by-product of Ethylene from the cracking process of Naphtha.  Due to the recent increase in the Ethan cracking process for the substitute of Naphtha cracking process, Butadiene production declasses so that its supply cannot suffice for the rapid growth of the demand for tire use today.  Especially in the highly growing countries, the shortage in Butadiene will be obvious in near future.  In such a situation Marubeni will take a role to tie the markets of North and South America and Asia, through effective utilization of its owned shipments and world-wide relationship with its customers including own related companies.