In the international market of specialty carbon products, the demand for these products has been rapidly increasing and exceeding the supply since the second half of last year. This is due mainly to the following reasons; the full-scale production of 300mm silicon wafers, increase in the production of industrial mold dies, and solar cells, and the demand increase for the automobile and aircraft manufacturing industries as well as the rapid growth in demand in emerging markets represented by BRIC’s countries including China and Russia.

In considering such situation, Nippon Techno Carbon has begun debottleneck its headquarters plant in Sendai (Ohsato-cho, Kurokawa-gun, Miyagi Prefecture) early this year by investing several hundred million yen. As a result, its production capacity for specialty carbon products has increased by 10 percent. In addition, the company decided to invest another 2 billion yen for the same plant in order to further expand the production capacity.
This expansion in production capacity will increase the current production capacity of 4,500 ton/year by more than 30 percent until the first half of 2007. The main products to be manufactured under the planning are high-density specialty carbon products that have been developed from the raw material stage, with collaboration between Nippon Steel Chemical Co., Ltd., one of the largest coal chemicals manufacturers in Japan and C-Chem Co., Ltd. (a member company of Nippon Steel Chemical Co. group), a world leading company in producing pitch coke for specialty carbon products, and　larger size products the demand of which is growing.
In the future, as an integrated carbon products manufacturer, mutually sharing the strategies of the parent companies ; Nippon Carbon Co., Ltd. and Nippon Steel Chemical Co., Ltd. who have accumulated their own know-hows on the sales and technology of specialty carbon products, we will establish consistent management organizations from raw materials to finished products in the development, manufacturing and sales phases and provide our customers with high-valued products. We will be further more stable in the market as a trustworthy carbon specialty manufacturer who can be free from any unstability as to procurement of raw materials and can be in accordance with our customers’ stable supply demands in the medium and long terms.

[The company’s profile]
Nippon Techno Carbon Co., Ltd.
Establishment: January 2003
Capital: 493 million yen (50% owned by Nippon Carbon Co., Ltd., and 50% by Nippon Steel Chemical Co., Ltd.)
Headquarters: 62-6 Aza-Nakasoneyama, Kawauchi, Ohsato-cho, Kurokawa-gun, Miyagi Prefecture
Annual sales: 8 billion yen(estimate)
Description of business: Manufacturing and sales of specialty carbon products
(URL: http://www.technocarbon.co.jp)