MITSUBISHI RAYON | Press Release | Notice of Price Rises for METABLEN™ Plastic Modifier (Japan market)

Aug 22, 2006

Mitsubishi Rayon Co., Ltd.

Notice of Price Rises for METABLEN™ Plastic Modifier (Japan market)

Mitsubishi Rayon hereby announces an unavoidable rise in the pricing of the Company’s product METABLEN plastic modifier in the Japanese market. We are now negotiating with our main users, with a view to raising the prices effective September 1, 2006.

Details of the changes are given below.

Name of product and margin of price raise

METABLEN, C type		¥30 per kilogram
METABLEN, P, W, S types		¥20 per kilogram

・METABLEN

C type	:	MBS resin-based plastic modifier
P, W, S types	:	Plastic modifier with acrylic monomer as principal component

Price rises effective: Deliveries on and after September 1, 2006

Reasons for price raise

MBS resin products are graft copolymers of methyl methacrylate, butadiene, and styrene. The Company’s MBS production operations are working at full capacity to keep up with expanding demand from Asian countries. We have no spare capacity in hand at the moment, with the result that inventory supplies of certain items are running very low.

The Company raised prices in 2005, but profitability of these operations has been severely impacted by rising fuel and distribution costs, as well as soaring prices for MMA (methyl methacrylate) monomer, butadiene and SM (styrene monomer).

Against this background, and in view of the Company’s need to return the profit margin in this business to an acceptable level, we have decided to raise prices as described above.

Please note that we have already increased export prices for goods in shipment from July, and are negotiating a further 10% rise with customers.

For further inquiries, please contact:

Public and Investor Relations Office

e-mail: koho@mrc.co.jp

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