Cosmo Oil to Add Xylene Production Units in Japan

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Researched by Industrialinfo.com (Industrial Information Resources, Incorporated; Houston, Texas). Cosmo Oil Company, Limited (Tokyo, Japan) is planning to build two new xylene production units in Japan. One will be built at Chiba and the other at Yokkaichi. Both units will produce approximately 200,000 metric tons a year and could cost around $80 million each. Cosmo is currently in the early planning stage for both of these projects, with a scheduled construction start date tentatively set for the first quarter of 2005 and completion in early 2006.

The addition of the two new plants will triple Cosmo's overall xylene production to 600,000 metric tons a year. Cosmo is hoping to export the 400,000 metric tons a year of added capacity to manufacturing companies in China.

Xylene, a colorless sweet-smelling gas, is commercially produced from a feedstock of petroleum and/or coal tar. This makes it an easy crossover petrochemical product for Cosmo to produce, since it is the third largest oil refiner in Japan. Xylene is an intermediate chemical utilized as a solvent in the manufacturing of gums, resins, rubbers, castor oil, dyes, adhesives, cleaning fluids, epoxy resins, perfumes, and insect repellents.

Cosmo Oil Company was established on April 1, 1986, by the merger of Daikyo Oil Company, Maruzen Oil Company, and Cosmo Oil Company. Asia Oil Company joined the merger in 1989. Cosmo has four refineries and over 5,000 gas stations. Cosmo recently formed a joint venture with Shikoku Electric Company and Shikoku Gas Company, Limited, to develop a LNG (Liquid Natural Gas) terminal at its Sakaide Refinery in Japan.