Sumitomo Chemical held a completion ceremony Oct. 4 for the new production line of its methionine feed additive at Ehime Works in Niihama City in Japan's Ehime prefecture. Following several trial runs, the new line will start commercial production soon.

Sumitomo said the amount of investment in the new manufacturing facility represents one of the largest it has ever made in Japan.

Methionine is an essential amino acid that cannot be synthesized in an animal’s body. It is widely used as a feed additive in the livestock industry, especially in poultry to increase the production of chicken meat and eggs because poultry feeds often do not contain adequate amounts of methionine, Sumitomo said.

The global methionine market has been growing at an annual rate of about 6% recently and is expected to show a similar growth in the years to come, the company said.

The production capacity of the new line is approximately 100,000 metric tons per year, which brings Sumitomo's total production capacity for methionine to approximately 250,000 mt per year, including existing facilities, the company said.

In order to realize swift sales expansion after the production capacity increase, Sumitomo said it has already reinforced marketing/sales capabilities globally with its established worldwide sales network. Furthermore, the company entered into a methionine distribution collaboration with Tokyo, Japan-based ITOCHU Corp. in April 2017, and pre-marketing activities conducted under the collaborative scheme have been progressed solidly as planned.

Sumitomo sees the field of life sciences as one of its key areas of business and is constantly promoting the expansion of its activities in the field, which has strong growth prospects. This methionine capacity expansion will enable Sumitomo to further cement its position as a leading supplier of the product in Asia while also contributing to a stable food supply globally, the company said.