News Release

Investment for strengthening the Competitiveness of SunAllomer (Introduction of high value-added polypropylene, Production capacity increase and Investment for energy conservation at Oita Works)

2008/4/1

We, SunAllomer Ltd., supported by our shareholders, have decided to invest in our Oita Works for the production of high value-added polypropylene, the increase of production capacity of existing plants and the investment for realizing energy conservation in order to further strengthen the competitiveness of the Oita Works as well as our overall SunAllomer business in Japan.

Our Investment plan foresees an increase by about 60,000 tons per annum of the first production line. In this capacity increase, the Spheripol technology process owned by one of our shareholders, LyondellBasell Industries and already used for the third line will be adopted in order to achieve cost reduction based on energy conservation and simpler plant management. Furthermore this third line of Oita Works will be upgraded, by applying advanced LBI technology, in order to enable it to manufacture polypropylene having higher concentration of rubber allowing for further product differentiation into high end & niche applications.
It is planned that all construction work should be completed during the next periodical maintenance shutdown scheduled for April 2010.

These high value-added polypropylene products, that we have decided to introduce, are characterized by higher content of rubber, high rigidity and high impact resistance, which will make it possible to reduce the weight and processing cost of molded products. With such an introduction, we can respond to the diversified needs of our customers especially in the area of automotive and food packaging use.

Circumstances surrounding the Global polypropylene business environment , such as the operation of large world-scale plants in the Middle East and China progressing today, the rising prices of raw materials such as crude oil and naphtha and diversified needs of our customers, require us to continuously innovate as a supplier. In order to respond to such request, we revised the Vision of our company in January this year, adopting "Different(iated)"* as our new slogan and making it a key element of our strategy in order to become the preferred supplier to our customers by offering unique products and services. Concretely, we will accelerate the shift from general-use application and product areas to high value-added ones. The above mentioned investment is an essential part of our aggressive innovation program under which 25% of our sales volume in 2012 will be made up by new products and technologies that we are not producing today. In order to achieve this target we will work closely together with our shareholder LyondellBasell, the world leader in Polyolefins and Technologies. With respect to high value-added polypropylene, we will aim at the sales volume of 40 - 50,000 tons per annum as the goal in a few years.

* Different(iated): A slogan containing the meaning of "SunAllomer; different from that in the past, and different from others".

SunAllomer, a joint venture of LyondellBasell Industries, Showa Denko K.K. and Nippon Oil Corporation, is one of Japan’s key polypropylene producers..

SunAllomer combines the global leadership of LyondellBasell with the local expertise of two of Japan’s leading industrial companies. By building on these strengths, SunAllomer delivers sustainable value to a variety of industries such as Automotives, Electronics, Food packaging, House wears and others, by offering innovative polypropylene and compounds that address customers' most challenging application requirements..

The company works closely with both customers and suppliers to generate value-adding business relationships. The company has a strong commitment to protecting the environment and carries out all its activities with a strong dedication to quality, health and safety.

For further information, please contact:

GA, HR & Compliance Group, Corporate Service Division, SunAllomer Ltd. ( 81-3-5781-5608)