“We provide materials that help to facilitate a more climate-neutral and circular world. The products to be manufactured at our new plant in Shanghai are an excellent illustration of this, as they will assist our customers in meeting the increasing demand for renewable energy solutions,” says Sucheta Govil, Chief Commercial Officer at Covestro. “In doing so, we are supporting the growth of an industry that is vital for preserving our climate. Furthermore, we are promoting sustainability in various industries by supplying materials containing renewable attributes.”

The polyurethane elastomers systems produced in the site can be used for a variety of end products. For offshore windpower, the protection of subsea cables is a core application area. The material is also used in the manufacturing process of photovoltaic panels or in screening medias in the mining industry. In all of the above, it is designed for purpose in close collaboration with customers to withstand even the harshest of conditions thanks to its excellent wear, tear and abrasion resistance.

“We want to support the growth of our customers and partake in the growth of key industries. As we expect the Elastomers market to grow above China’s gross domestic product, we want to enable our customers to capture it. That is what we do with our overall investments into our Elastomer business, and with this investment in our new plant in Shanghai right now,” said Dr. Thomas Braig, Head of the Business Entity Elastomers.

The new plant is the latest addition to the Covestro Integrated Site Shanghai (CISS), Covestro’s single largest production site worldwide. CISS is now home to twelve plants. Since 2001, the company has invested about 3.7 billion Euro into the site as of the end of 2022.

Holly Lei, President of Covestro in China, said, “Our company’s vision of becoming fully circular and our target of being operationally climate neutral by 2035 are perfectly aligned with China’s ambitions to be carbon neutral before 2060. The products we produce in CISS and this addition of polyurethane elastomers systems position us to make meaningful contributions to sustainability efforts in China and in the entire region, for example in the area of renewable energy generation.”

CISS is also among Covestro’s ISCC PLUS (International Sustainability and Carbon Certification) certified sites. This means it is capable of supplying customers with drop-in, mass-balanced materials derived from renewable attributed products, thereby helping customers to reduce their carbon footprint. To make more sustainable products easier to distinguish, Covestro introduced the suffix “CQ”. CQ stands for “Circular Intelligence” and identifies products containing a minimum of 25 percent alternative raw materials.

Mr. Uchimura will take over the position in addition to his current role as President of Japan Fine Coatings Co., Ltd.. Kimiyasu Yonemaru (currently, Country Representative for Covestro in Japan and President of Covestro Japan Ltd..) will retire from Covestro, effective June 30, 2023.

¹ Japan Fine Coatings Co., Ltd. is a wholly owned subsidiary of Covestro Japan Ltd.

JFC, which has a long history as a joint venture between European and Japanese companies, is one of the leading suppliers of optical fiber coatings. The Tsukuba plant focuses on the manufacturing of UV-curable resins supporting the optical fiber market through safe and stable operations. This year JCIA awarded the Tsukuba plant with the ‘Safety Award Grand Prize’ in recognition of its excellent safety track record of more than 20 years without a recordable incident since the start of its operations as a result of integrating and nurturing a European-Japanese culture of safety.

"We have steadily carried out in-depth safety activities such as safety morning meetings and on-the-job training based on Japanese safety culture to pass on and to deepen our knowledge, skills and culture on safety. On top of that, we succeeded in integrating European-Japanese safety cultures by introducing global safety tools such as the ‘Safe Start Program’ , which analyzes mental conditions in the event of an accident and near miss," explains Takahiko Kurosawa, site manager of the Tsukuba plant. "In terms of equipment, we are implementing safety upgrades including the introduction of safety instrumented systems (SIS), which takes automated action in case of abnormalities, and a bar code system to prevent the erroneous handling of raw materials. We are very honored that our daily efforts have resulted in achieving more than 20 years without a recordable incident, and that our efforts have been recognized with this award."

JCIA is the leading association representing the chemical  industry in Japan, which includes approx. 4,700 chemical sites. The Safety award is a practice to award business establishments which engage in outstanding safety activities that promote security, safety, and health in the chemical industry on their own initiative serving as a golden standard for others. The safety award has a history of nearly half a century since its inception in 1977. Award-winners in the past included leading Japanese chemical companies, but this is the first time that a foreign-affiliated company receives the ‘Safety Award Grand Prize’.

"We are very honored that this is the second award for the Covestro Group after the ‘Safety Award Special Prize’ for the Niihama Plant of Sumika Covestro Urethane Co.,Ltd. in 2017. Covestro’s global motto towards safety, ‘Nothing we do is worth getting hurt for’ clearly shows that safety is the highest priority. We will engage in continued operational safety based on our current corporate safety culture," explains Kimiyasu Yonemaru, President of Covestro Japan.

DIC Covestro Polymer Ltd.
Head Office

KDX Hamamatsucho Place 7F,
1-7-6, Shibakoen, Minato-ku,
Tokyo 105-0011

Tel. 03-6403-9107
Fax. 03-3433-0533

Opening Date:

Monday, December 14, 2020
Note: Regular business operations will continue at the current 
premises until Friday, December 11, 2020

3 min. walk from Daimon Station (Exit A6) - Toei Subway Asakusa / Oedo line
4 min. walk from Onarimon Station (Exit A2) - Toei Subway Mita line
7 min. walk from Hamamatsucho Station (North exit) - JR Yamanote / Keihin Tohoku line
8 min. walk from Tokyo Monorail Hamamatsucho Station

Based on its innovation leadership, Covestro was chosen as partner by Toyota Boshoku Corporation, a car component manufacturer of the Japanese Toyota Group, for jointly developing a new polyurethane composite material for the new electric concept car “LQ” developed by Toyota Motor Corporation. The material is based on a combination of Covestro's advanced Baypreg^® F NF technology and Toyota Boshoku's expertise in using kenaf fibers, and offers a lightweight and sustainable solution. In the “LQ”, the new product is used in door trims, where it makes its world premiere in a car model of this manufacturer.

Kenaf is a member of the hibiscus genus and is growing in regions such as South East Asia, Bangladesh, India and Africa. The fiber is obtained from bast fibers of the kenaf plant and has recently attracted increasing attention as a cost-effective raw material with good mechanical properties. In the automotive industry, the plant fiber is also attracting increasing interest as an alternative raw material.

Light and stiff

The kenaf fiber-reinforced polyurethane foam composite is characterized by a very low area density of less than 1 kg/m² and high strength, making the door trim made of the fiber-reinforced kenaf polyurethane foam 30 percent lighter than that produced from conventional materials. The lighter the material, the further the car can travel on a single gas or battery charge.

The new composite material was developed in close cooperation between Toyota Boshoku and Covestro's recently renovated Japanese Innovation Center. “Our joint development makes an important contribution to the design of particularly lightweight and sustainable vehicles,” says Hiroaki Ido, Head of Polyurethanes Application Development for Transportation at Covestro's Japanese Innovation Center. “It is also a good example of our company's focus on using alternative raw materials and establishing a circular economy.”