Amsterdam-headquartered bio-based materials and packaging company Avantium has signed an agreement with Mitsui to commercialise 100% biobased chemicals FDCA and PEF in Asia.
Highlighting the potential for PEF and FDCA in the Asian market, Avantium has announced that Mitsui has been granted a right to purchase a large volume of FDCA from its first commercial FDCA plant.
Details of the FDCA plant including its capacity, location and time lines for the construction will be revealed in the first quarter of 2016, says Avantium.
Avantium and Mitsui have entered into an agreement for PEF thin films in Asia and PEF bottles in Japan, and are also partnering to launch and grow the market for other FDCA-based applications such as co-polyesters.
Tom van Aken, CEO Avantium, said: “This partnership with Mitsui is a unique opportunity for Avantium to unlock the growth opportunities in the Asian market, one of the fastest growing markets for packaging materials. This collaboration expands our PEF developments beyond bottles, as supported by The Coca-Cola Company, Danone and ALPLA, into the new application of thin PEF films. Particularly Japan is a very attractive market for a high performance material like PEF. The Japanese packaging industry is highly innovative, resulting in a large variety of packaging formats to meet the high quality standards demanded by local consumers. It is our ambition to support Mitsui and their Japanese partners and customers to launch PEF and other FDCA-based applications to the market well in time for the Tokyo Olympics”.