China Steel Chemical Corp’s (CSCC, 中碳) new carbon materials plant in Pingtung County began operations yesterday, with the company eyeing business opportunities in the emerging electric vehicle (EV) market.
CSCC said it has since 2000 poured resources into the research and development of mesophase graphite, a key material in the production of lithium-ion batteries used in electric cars and solar power plants.
With an investment of NT$1.105 billion (US$37.84 million), the facility in Ping Nan Industrial Park (屏南工業區) is expected to produce 1,000 tonnes of mesophase graphite this year, CSCC vice president Hwang Shu-cheng (黃書誠) said by telephone.
Full annual capacity is designed to reach 2,000 tonnes, he added.
To ensure self-sufficiency in energy, the company said it would set up a rooftop photovoltaic system with an installed capacity of 390 kilowatts at the Pingtung plant.
CSCC is also expanding its capacity for mesocarbon microbead, which is used in making mesophase graphite, at its plant in Kaohsiung’s Siaogang District (小港), adding two production lines to the six it already has.
Once fully operational in the second half of this year, the two new lines would boost its annual capacity from 5,000 tonnes to 7,500 tonnes, CSCC said.
The company is stepping up efforts to develop more carbon materials with the aim of reducing its reliance on coal-based chemicals, which account for more than 90 percent of its total sales.
CSCC said that it hopes to catch up with global trends, as many countries have pledged to phase out fossil-fuel-powered cars.
The Kaohsiung-headquartered company is the only coal-based chemical manufacturer in Taiwan that is capable of processing the coal tar and light oil produced by integrated steel mills, such as its parent company, China Steel Corp (CSC, 中鋼).
The company posted cumulative revenue of NT$1.29 billion for the first two months of this year, a 20.69 percent increase from NT$1.07 billion a year earlier.
The company is upbeat about this quarter’s sales outlook, due to higher crude oil prices compared with same period last year, it said.
CSCC also expects to benefit from increasing output at Formosa Ha Tinh Steel Corp (台塑河靜鋼鐵), a joint venture between CSC and Formosa Plastics Group (台塑集團), it said.
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