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The Chemicals & Plastics Division is comprised of two main business entities: the Chemicals Unit and the Plastics Unit. It has 83 subsidiaries and affiliated companies in Japan and overseas.
In October 2006, the Chemicals Unit merged with Sojitz Chemical Corporation, one of the division's core operating companies. In addition to the Fertilizer & Methanol Department enjoying stable earnings through its four manufacturing subsidiaries in Asia, the division has newly established several other departments. These include the Inorganic Chemicals & Industrial Minerals Department, which handles mineral resources and inorganic chemicals; the Organic Chemicals Department, involved mainly in petrochemicals and solvents; the Tokyo and Osaka Specialty Chemicals Departments, responsible for high performance chemicals, advanced materials and rare earth; and the Fine Chemicals Department, which largely handles pharmaceuticals and agrochemicals, drug intermediates, catalysts and ingredients for cosmetics. Through these departments, we handle an array of more than 1,400 items and conduct business investments aimed at making the division's already solid value chain even stronger.
In the Plastics Unit, operations are primarily conducted through another core operating company, Sojitz Pla-Net Corporation*. Sojitz Pla-Net is made up of five key departments through which it provides solution-based, function-enabling operations that meet a broad range of customer needs. These departments are the No. 1 and No. 2 Performance Polymers Departments, which mostly operate the compound resin business and handle plastic materials; the No. 1 and No. 2 Packaging Materials Departments, which handle film sheets and materials for use in various types of packaging; and the Advanced Materials Department, which handles LCDs and other electronic materials.
* Name changed from Pla-Net Corporation on April 1, 2007.
In the chemical sector, we will expand business scope by broadening existing upstream and downstream businesses, and advancing into new business domains. By improving quality as we grow in scale, the aim is to add greater depth to the division's business base to realize multi-dimensional growth. Business investment in the chemical sector will seek to secure resources and establish a network of distribution bases in China. In North America, Europe and Asia, the plan is to develop business through more investments with strategic partners in manufacturing operations.
In the plastics sector, Sojitz Pla-Net will further strengthen relationships with business customers, having positioned plastics for office automation (OA) equipment and home electronics, and barrier packaging materials as its core business. In automotive and FPD (flat-panel display)-related businesses, we are bolstering division responsiveness to growth markets in line with strategic business expansion plans. Meanwhile, we will aggressively invest in photovoltaic cells and other advanced materials, which we view as the division's next major source of earnings growth.
Also, we are expanding the division's plastic raw materials business for the OA, home electronics and automotive fields in China and other Asian countries designated as strategic regions by focusing management resources in these areas. In North America and Europe, meanwhile, we are focusing on building a competitive structure to bring greater diversity and added value to the packaging material products handled by the division.
The division realizes a stronger value chain through the access to Group company functions provided by Sojitz Corporation. In the methanol business, Indonesia-based methanol manufacturing subsidiary P.T. Kaltim Methanol Industri supplies products to the domestic market and exports to other parts of Asia. In Vietnam, sales subsidiary Sojitz Chemical Distribution Service Co., Ltd., which owns tank facilities, boasts the leading market share in Vietnam in terms of methanol sales volume. The company has achieved this feat by importing large shipments of methanol from P.T. Kaltim Methanol Industri, which it then stores and sells in smaller order quantities to customers. In this way, Sojitz is taking an organic approach to linking Group company functions to the customers and regions they serve to further expand its value chain.
