The Electronics & Imaging business line of the soon to be de-merged DowDuPont (Midland, Michigan / USA; www.dow-dupont.com) is investing USD 220m (EUR 195m) to expand production of its “Kapton” polyimide (PI) film and “Pyralux” flexible circuit materials at Circleville, Ohio / USA. Without disclosing capacity figures, the company said it is responding to growing demand from automotive, consumer electronics, telecommunications and defence applications. The expansion is planned to be completed by 2021.

DuPont is also investing in an infrastructure upgrade at its DuPont Hsinchu site in Taiwan. After achieving its previously announced 20% increase in PI film output, the company said it plans to add “significantly more” capability over the next several years. Jim Fahey, president of Electronics & Imaging, said the new production assets “will position us well” to support the enhanced demand for advanced materials in such fields as 5G, automotive, flexible displays and artificial intelligence (AI).

The business put together from Dow’s Electronic Materials division and DuPont’s Electronics & Communications division is part of the DowDuPont Specialty Products business, which had sales of USD 5.5 bn and EBITDA of USD 1.8 bn in the fourth quarter of 2018 – see Plasteurope.com of 08.02.2019. In future, it will belong to the new DuPont, headed by Edward Breen as CEO. The break-up of the merged conglomerate will take place between 1 April and 1 June 2019, with the new “pure play” materials producer Dow to start trading next month. DuPont’s materials and agriculture businesses subsequently will split and become standalone companies.