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<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\nIn response to this growth, Asian companies are partnering up to expand capacity in biochemicals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Some of the biggest Asian biomanufacturing collaborations<\/a> announced over the last year have involved companies from China, Malaysia, Thailand, Singapore, and Japan. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Often, they are already major players in petrochemicals, now expanding into biochemicals. Many are cooperating with European chemicals companies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n We analyse major Asian biochemicals deals from the past year and what they mean for the countries involved.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Braskem Siam<\/a>\u00a0has chosen\u00a0Toyo Engineering Corporation<\/a>\u00a0to work on engineering design for the latter\u2019s 200,000 tonne capacity biobased polyethylene (bio-PE) plant in Thailand.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n Braskem Siam\u2019s planned bio-PE plant, expected to come online by 2027, will be the first plant to manufacture this material in Asia. Sugarcane will be the main feedstock. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Bio-PE is used across industries in food packaging, personal care, and toys. Ethylene is normally made from fossil fuels. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Braskem Siam is a petrochemicals company that has branched off into the biomaterials market. It is a joint venture between Brazil\u2019s Braskem (the largest petrochemical company in Latin America) and Thai-based petrochemical company SCG Chemicals. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The deal will be welcomed by the Thai government, which is actively trying to grow into a biotech powerhouse to upgrade its economy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Thailand\u2019s 2021 \u201cBio-circular-green economy\u2019 strategy aims to turn the country into a biobased hub with emphasis on biomaterials manufacturing capacity. <\/p>\n\n\n\n This is a 20-year National Strategy that aims to stimulate investment and enhance the business environment. It will also see Thailand cooperating with Japan on designing a new circular economy for Thailand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For Thailand, a thriving bioeconomy is a pathway towards greater economic prosperity and reducing inequality. It is already a major agricultural exporter but its ability to process higher value goods would mean more revenue and less reliance on a fluctuating agricultural commodities market. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The Braskem-Toyo deal also reflects growing interest by foreign chemicals companies in tapping Asian biobased demand. The plant would be Braskem\u2019s first industrial park in Asia, set to almost double existing production of Braskem\u2019s global bio-PE production. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Braskem is not the only Brazilian producer trying to enter the Asian biomanufacturing sector. In January 2024 Brazilian paper and pulp producer Suzano signed an agreement with Japan\u2019s Mitsui & Co to develop biobased businesses. The deal aims to tap Suzano\u2019s Brazilian eucalyptus farms as well as pulp byproducts.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n Chinese biotech company Shanghai Bluepha agreed to collaborate<\/a> for three years on commercialising a biobased coating for packaging in the Asia Pacific region. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The biobased coating is meant to eliminate the toxic chemicals usually used to finish packaging. <\/p>\n\n\n\n These include the thin plastic lining found in many food and beverage packaging (usually polyethylene) otherwise made of compostable paper materials. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Food packaging lining can also contain chemicals known as PFAS. This class of substances is linked to cancer and environmental toxicity. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The biobased version that Kemira<\/a> and Bluepha<\/a> will promote instead uses PHA material developed by Bluepha to be degradable in sea water. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Shanghai Bluepha is a green industrial biotech company founded in 2016 by scientists from Tsinghua and Peking University.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The primary goal of the collaboration is for the Finnish company to sell into the Asian packaging supply chain and capture market demand there for sustainable alternatives. <\/p>\n\n\n\n However, Bluepha also has its eye on the EU market, where green chemicals demand is being driven up by EU regulation. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Bluepha\u2019s PHA has already cleared the main regulatory hurdle to selling in Europe. Its product met the EU food contact material test, meaning it can be used for good packaging through the region. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Bluepha is testament to the success of the Chinese government\u2019s biotech policies over the last two decades. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Since 2009, it classed biotech as a strategic energy industry that got preferential tax treatment, subsidies, and government procurement. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The result is a booming industry that is now competitive with European and US firms<\/a> on innovation and manufacturing costs. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Another Finnish-Asian collaboration. This time, Finland\u2019s Neste<\/a> will be supplying Singapore-based chemicals company PCS<\/a> with renewable feedstock for bioplastics. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The renewable material Neste will be providing is based on waste products like used cooking oil or the byproducts of vegetable oil processing. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Neste already has a renewable materials refinery in Singapore. <\/p>\n\n\n\n PCS will use Neste feedstock to make different chemical precursors for plastics: ethylene, propylene, and butadiene. <\/p>\n\n\n\n One customer will be Japanese multinational Mitsubishi, which will be receiving biobased butadiene from the firm. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Mitsubishi had already committed to entering the renewable materials supply chain, having agreed on a strategic partnership with Neste to develop value chains for renewable chemicals in 2024.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The companies Toray Plastics<\/a> in Malaysia and UK-registered Synthomer<\/a> will also receive the PCS-Neste butadiene, ready to be formed into products across various industries. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In January 2025, Synthomer announced that its supply agreement with PCS and Neste would be used to create its range of 20 percent biobased rubber latex gloves. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The company says this would represent one of the first Asian butadiene value chains that conforms to the USCC certification \u2013 a sustainability certification system for sustainable feedstocks. <\/p>\n\n\n\n PCS Singapore started as a joint venture between the Government of Singapore, The Development Bank of Singapore Limited<\/a>, and the Japan-Singapore Petrochemicals Company Limited.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The company mainly produces industrial chemicals based on fossil sources. Yet as this supply deal shows, even fossil companies are moving into the growing Asian market for green alternatives. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Singapore is hoping to put itself on the map for biobased manufacturing capabilities with this syn-bio platform, known as the Sustainable Bio-manufacturing Technology Platform. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The partnership is a public-private collaboration between two Singaporean entities: MojiaBio<\/a>, a startup in green chemistry, and the government\u2019s Agency for Science, Technology, and Research (A*STAR)<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n MojiaBio has developed a platform to convert low-cost renewable materials into advanced biobased molecules for different industries. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The platform engineers enzymes and microbial strains so they can serve specific applications. For speedier and more accurate bio-engineering, the platform uses the National University Of Singapore\u2019s computational modelling expertise. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The government agency\u2019s role in the partnership is to help the company commercialise the product. <\/p>\n\n\n\n For two decades the Singaporean government has focused on building up its biopharma industry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Now, synbio is Singapore\u2019s latest target of economic development. The new MojiaBio collaboration is a breakthrough for the Singapore government\u2019s Green Plan 2030, which now aims to build its biobased chemicals sector. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Government agency A*STAR is crucial in this development scheme, as its role is to bridge between academia and industry. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The centre of Singapore\u2019s biobased research efforts is the National University of Singapore, now working on a number of projects that fit the green synbio mould including a programme developing a blue-green algae biomanufacturing platform.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Another Europe-Asia collaboration, this time on biofuels, between Petroliam Nasional Berhad<\/a>, Enilive<\/a> and Euglena<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The three companies reached a final agreement last summer to develop a biorefinery in Malaysia. The plant will have capabilities in sustainable aviation fuel (SAF), bio-naphtha, and hydrotreated vegetable oil.<\/p>\n\n\n\n When finished, the biorefinery will have the capacity to process about 650, 000 tonnes of raw materials per year. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The feedstock will come from waste: used vegetable oils and the byproducts of vegetable oil processing. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In December 2024, the companies announced that Samsung would serve as the main contractor for the joint venture, providing engineering procurement, construction, and commissioning. <\/p>\n\n\n\n As a whole, Southeast Asian SAF capacity is growing rapidly as a means of achieving industrial development with Malaysia and Singapore leading the way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n One of Malaysia\u2019s big advantages when it comes to building a cost-effective SAF industry is that it has a large pool of palm oil refining waste, which is an attractive circular biofuel feedstock.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Right now Malaysia mainly exports their palm oil effluent to China for biodiesel production. Yet the expansion of domestic SAF capacity could mean this feedstock is diverted into a home industry, allowing the country to capture more of the value locked up in the agro-waste it generates. <\/p>\n\n\n\n By building up its sustainable fuel capacity, Malaysia is aiming to take advantage of growing regulation-led demand in Europe and South Korea.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The EU will require that at least 2 percent of sustainable aviation fuel be available at all its airports. South Korea plans to introduce mandatory blending requirements from 2027.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Asian government funding support for the biotech ecosystem grew 140% between 2021 and 2024, driven by India and China. Meanwhile, new anti-plastics legislation in the region is starting to boost demand for renewable materials. In response to this growth, Asian companies are partnering up to expand capacity in biochemicals. Some of the biggest Asian biomanufacturing collaborations announced […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":59,"featured_media":165490,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"none","nova_meta_subtitle":"We analyse major Asian biochemicals deals from the past year and what they mean for the countries involved","footnotes":""},"categories":[5572],"tags":[7190,26667,6843,5838,22614,5714,17299,22586,10416,12348,7105,16792],"supplier":[12245,14940,1604,24662,10273,18689,4427,2777,25936,5327,11708,25271,3820,4244,13805,9662,9291,26663,25254,3814],"class_list":["post-165458","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bio-based","tag-algae","tag-biediesel","tag-biochemicals","tag-bioeconomy","tag-biofeedstocks","tag-biofuels","tag-biomanufacturing","tag-biopolyethylene","tag-circulareconomy","tag-coatings","tag-packaging","tag-saf","supplier-agency-for-science-technology-and-research-astar","supplier-bluepha","supplier-braskem","supplier-enilive","supplier-euglena-co-ltd","supplier-government-of-singapore","supplier-kemira-oyj","supplier-mitsui-co-ltd","supplier-mojiabio","supplier-national-university-of-singapore","supplier-neste","supplier-pcs-pte-ltd","supplier-petronas","supplier-samsung-corp","supplier-scg-chemicals-co-ltd","supplier-suzano-pulp-and-paper","supplier-synthomer","supplier-the-development-bank-of-singapore-dbs-limited","supplier-toray-plastics-malaysia-sdn-berhad","supplier-toyo-engineering-corporation"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/165458","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/59"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=165458"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/165458\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/165490"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=165458"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=165458"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=165458"},{"taxonomy":"supplier","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/supplier?post=165458"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Braskem Siam (Brazil\/Thailand) \u2013 Toyo Engineering (Japan), October 2024<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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Thailand\u2019s green ambitions<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Brazil\u2019s Asian ventures<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Kemira (Finland) \u2013 Shanghai Bluepha Microbiology Technology (China), June 2025<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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Asia-EU trade<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Chinese biotech policies pay off<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Neste (Finland) \u2013 PCS (Singapore), November 2024<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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MojiaBio (Singapore) \u2013 A*Star (Singapore) \u2013 March 2025<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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Synbio for economic development<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Petroliam Nasional Berhad (Malaysia) \u2013 Enilive (Italy) \u2013 Euglena (Japan), July 2024<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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Malaysia\u2019s feedstock advantage<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n