Chem-wire Express Japan

12 June 2003 04:45  [Source: CWEJ]

Chem-wire Express Japan: Edition of 11 June

Basic and Fine Chemicals

JSP Corp (Tokyo) is to inaugurate its three-year plan this July which aims at attaining current profit of Yen5.4bn ($45.8m/Euro39.0m) on sales of Yen90 bn. The company envisages winning the No. 1 position globally in the world foamed plastics market. (Page 1)

Toyobo has succeeded in developing an ion-exchange membrane for a fuel cell, which can function under high temperature and in low humidity. The membrane is a combination of an inhouse-developed hydrdocarbon polymer with ionic conductivity and its proprietary polyparaphenylene benzobis oxazole (trade name: Zylon). (p. 1)

Japan Polyethylene, to be formed this September through the integration of Japan Polychem’s and Japan Polyolefins’ polyethylene (PE) operations, will mothball part of its low density PE (ldPE) plant and concentrate on linear low density PE (lldPE) production at its Kashima site. (p. 2)

Japanese-affiliated companies operating in Singapore are seeking to implement a new round of capital spending. ISK Singapore, for example, is considering expanding its production capacity for titanium dioxide by 50%. (p. 2)

At their final third ruling, the Indonesian authorities rejected Sulfindo’s application for approval of the bankruptcy of Satomo Indovyl Monomer (SIM) which it jointly owns with Sumitomo Corp. (p. 2)

Shin-Etsu Chemical is due to set up a local marketing arm for silicone in China with startup slated for next January. The company has recently fired up a manufacturing plant for secondary silicone products in Zhejiang, China. (p. 2)

Maruzen Petrochemical Group’s member company Sunplac is scheduled to embark on commercial production of inhouse-developed biodegradable mulching film at year-end using its 500 tonne/year plant in Saitama Prefecture. (p. 2)

Kuraray is moving to build two production lines with a combined capacity of 10 000 tonne/year for extruded acrylic film at its Nakajo site in Niigata Prefecture at a total cost of Yen3.5 bn. The product will be used as components for rear projection TVs, LCDs and LCD TVs. (p. 3)

Naphtha spot prices in the Far East exceeded $260/tonne on 9 June, reaching their highest level since late March in response to rising crude oil prices in the global market. (p. 3)

Fuji Oil is looking to expand existing production facilities at its Sakai factory in a bid to mass produce soybean-derived functional food material such as soybean peptides and beta-conglycinin.(p. 4)

S.K. Soap (Japan) has sold a total of some 70 000 packages of a cleaning agent for washing machines in South Korea in partnership with a local trading company to help clean up mould in washing machines which reportedly triggers atopic dermatitis. (p. 4)

Sunshine Co has launched a high-performance glass-coating agent designed to cut out over 92% of infrared rays contained in sunrays and over 99% of ultraviolet rays. (p. 5)

Nippon Oil plans to discontinue supplying cutting oil containing a chlorine-based additive which is believed to affect adversely the environment and the human body. Instead, it intends to promote biodegradable cutting oil which serves to reduce the discharge of waste oil. (p. 7)

Casio Computer and CMK Corp have jointly pioneered an embedded wafer-level package multi-chip module (EWLP), in which a wafer-level package is used as a bare chip and CPU and memories are all built in. (p. 10)

Major Japanese LCD makers are expanding production of panels for cell phones since there is growing need for high-definition displays along with spread of cell phones equipped with a camera having a larger amount of pixels and a share of TFT displays is expanding. (p. 10)

China’s Ministry of Commerce announced on 10 June it would take provisional antidumping measures against the polyurethane material TDI imported from Japan, South Korea and the US. (p. 11)

Idemitsu Kosan and Nippon Oil have decided to invest $2.5m each in the Community Development Carbon Fund established by the World Bank. The intention is to help prevent global warming and obtain greenhouse gas emission reduction credits. (p. 12)

Towa Kagaku has launched into purification of sewage and soil in urban areas using the stimulation method, which is capable of decomposing VOCs and oily material by activating indigenous microorganisms. (p. 12)

 

Life Sciences and Health Care

Nihon Medi-Physics is to step up commercial production of a diagnostic agent used for positron emission tomography (PET). The company is considering building production facilities for FDG (F-18 fluorodeoxyglucose), an RI diagnostic agent for PET application, at six sites throughout the country. (p. 1)

Yuki Gosei Kagaku is to build up a production setup for pharmaceutical active ingredients and intermediates. It will expand a reactor and refining facilities at its Tokiwa site and remodel one of its production facilities to comply with GMP. The total cost is put at Yen700 mn. (p. 5)

Fujisawa Pharmaceutical expects annual sales of Seroquel, a schizophrenia treatment introduced by AstraZeneca of the UK, and Myslee, a hypnotic introduced by Sanofi of France, to exceed Yen10bn each this fiscal year. (p. 8)

Minophagen Pharmaceutical is scheduled to build a new laboratory in Zama, Kanagawa Prefecture, where it will research the expansion of the applications for its chronic hepatitis treatment Stronger Neo-Minophagen C and discovery of an anti-inflammatory agent. (p. 8)

Ciphergen Biosystems (US) has filed an application for a patent on a protein which could be used as a SARS-related protein biomarker. (p. 8)

The Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare (MHLW) has formed a new working goup to discuss measures for preventing mistakes in administering drugs, due to similarity in packaging and differences in specification. (p. 8)

Nomura Research Institute and NuGenesis Technologies (US) are aiming to supply up to 10 companies with their respective data management consultant services and the scientific data management systems. The sales turnover is put at some Yen500m for the initial year. (p. 8)

Sankyo Pharma (US) has obtained FDA approval for its new combined therapeutic containing an ormesartan medoxomill anti-hypertensive and a hydrochlorothiazide diuretics. (p. 8)

Chiyoda Corp has concluded a Yen9bn project management contract (PMC) with Eisai for construction of drug development/production facilities at the latter’s Kashima site. They are to be completed by July, 2004. (p. 11)

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