SDK-ANTAM JV begins commercial operations at Indonesian chemical alumina plant

2015-02-10

Feb. 9, 2015 - PT Indonesia Chemical Alumina (ICA) has started commercial operations at its new chemical alumina plant in the Tayan District, West Kalimantan, Indonesia.
PT ICA is a joint venture (JV) owned by Showa Denko KK (SDK) and PT ANTAM (Persero) of Indonesia.
Chemical alumina is called alumina and aluminium hydroxide for applications other than aluminium smelting, produced through the Bayer process, a common way to produce alumina.
In the Bayer process, aluminium hydroxide (alumina) is extracted from bauxite as raw material, by using sodium hydroxide (caustic soda).
Chemical alumina is used for several industrial applications such as chemicals for water treatment, functional materials and electronic materials.
Functional materials include ceramic refractories, abrasives and radiators, while electronic materials comprise of IC packaging and LCD glass.
The new plant has an annual capacity of 300,000t, which will be split between SDK taking 200,000t and Antam having 100,000t.
The new plant is 80% owned by Antam and 20% by SDK, with Antam supplying the bauxite for the plant and SDK providing the chemical alumina manufacturing technology.
SDK has transferred its industrial technology to produce chemical alumina from its Yokohama Plant to the new Indonesian plant.
According to SDK, it will soon start to sell chemical alumina products manufactured at the new plant to its customers in and outside Japan.
The company also aims to establish a supply system focusing on the growing Asian market, in order to expand sales of chemical alumina for use in water treatment and as ingredients of functional materials.