No. 344: A new plant in Poland to produce parts for emission gas purification of diesel vehicles (November 7, 2011)

Unlike in Japan where hybrid vehicles and e-vehicles are growing their presence, low-pollutant diesel vehicles are still enjoying a high popularity in Europe. Because environmental regulations are expected to grow more stringent in Europe, Sumitomo Chemical will build a plant to produce parts for emission gas purification of diesel vehicles in Poland with an investment of about 15 billion yen. The new plant will produce parts for more than 2 million vehicles annually, most of which will be sold to European automakers. The construction will start early 2012, and the new plant is scheduled to start operations late 2013.

The part is the diesel particulate filter (DPF) to be built in the exhaust mechanism. The DPF is generally made of silicon carbide, and NGK Insulators and Ibiden are the two leading producers of this model. Sumitomo Chemical, however, developed the next-generation DPF that is made of aluminum titanate. Sumitomo’s next-generation DPF was successful in the performance examination by automakers. The company has already got informal approval from some European automakers. In addition to the plant in Poland, the company is also building DPF equipment in one of its domestic plants with an investment of about 2 billion yen. This domestic plant is scheduled to ship DPFs to Hyundai of Korea and manufacturers of construction and farming machinery in Asia.