Showa Denko (SDK) has completed a new plant in Nantong, Jiangsu province, to produce high-purity aluminum foil for electrolytic capacitors.

A completion ceremony was held at the Nantong Economic and Technological Development Area on Oct 11. Dong Kexin, vice-director of the area management committee, and Wang Kangli, vice-director of the area management committee, attended the ceremony.

Showa Denko Aluminum (Nantong) Co Ltd, a subsidiary of SDK, was established in November 2011 as the group's 14th subsidiary. It is the only subsidiary producing high-purity aluminum foil overseas.

The company has a registered capital of 1.5 billion yen ($19.59 million). Its first phase investment reached 3 billion yen ($39.18 million). The project will have annual production totaling 4.8 million tons of high-purity aluminum foil for electrolytic capacitors, all of which will be sold domestically.

SDK’s new plant in Nantong will play an active role in promoting new materials development, enhancing the level of technological innovation, and boosting economic transformation and upgrading in the area.

Unlike aluminum foil for food packaging, the production of capacitor-grade aluminum foil is based on high-purity aluminum metal refined to 99.9 percent or more.

SDK's Sakai plant in Osaka Prefecture, Japan, is an integrated high-purity aluminum foil production site, covering all stages from refinement of aluminum metal to rolling and finishing. The new plant in Nantong city will process rolled foil supplied from the Sakai plant into finished product, providing high-purity aluminum foil to customers in all parts of China in a timely manner.

Aluminum electrolytic capacitors are used in wide areas, including electric appliances, IT devices, electric vehicles, hybrid cars, and equipment for solar/wind power generation.

Showa Denko Group was established in 1939 and is an important Japanese-based manufacturer of petrochemicals, chemicals, inorganics, aluminum, electronics materials and advanced battery materials. Its high-purity aluminum foil for electrolytic capacitors accounts for more than 50 percent of the market share in Japan.