TOKYO, September 30, 2009_Ube Industries, Ltd., announced today that it will establish the Ube Group Functional Inorganic Material Commercialization Promotion Office directly under the president on October 1, 2009. Focusing its effort on the functional inorganic materials business, one of Ube's developing businesses which is handled by various companies in the Ube Group including Ube Material Industries, Ltd. (Ube Material; President: Kenichi Abe), the Promotion Office will be tasked with facilitating the rapid transition of the business to one of Ube's strategic growth businesses. The Promotion Office will achieve this objective by strengthening and focusing the company's technology and market development capabilities, through a shared future group strategy and inter-organizational cooperation.
Toshihiro Ishikawa, Research Fellow, Inorganic Specialty Product Research Laboratory, Corporate Research & Development, Ube Industries, will serve as the head of the Promotion Office, while also maintaining his current position. In addition to setting the direction for technology and marketing relating to the Ube Group's functional inorganic materials, he will be in charge of ascertaining the overall picture for research, development, technology and business development, while charting a course for the future.
The functional inorganic materials of the Ube Group include a wide range of products: high purity silicon nitride and Tyranno Fiber® with outstanding heat resistance (handled by the Specialty Chemicals & Products Company of Ube Industries); high fracture- and heat-resistant Tyrannohex® ceramics and photocatalytic fibers with outstanding environmental purification abilities (handled by Corporate Research & Development of Ube Industries); high purity ceramic powders such as magnesia and calcia (handled by Ube Material); and silica bead particles (handled by Ube-Nitto Kasei Co., Ltd.). To date, the business development initiatives for these materials have been carried out separately.
The new Promotion Office will share information on these functional inorganic materials group-wide, and look into ways to more efficiently promote their commercialization.
Working groups (WG) will be created as needed under the Promotion Office, in order to accelerate marketing and technology development. The Functional Inorganic Powders WG will be established simultaneously with the Promotion Office, and is expected to facilitate rapid achievement of group-wide cooperative results. The working group is made up of representatives from Ube Industries and Ube Material, and will promote the rapid commercialization of materials for electronics products and optical function materials, in particular.
In the future, the Ube Group will work towards effective business development for other major inorganic technologies including functional ceramic powder, modeling material, and fiber related technologies, while promoting the development of distinctive functional inorganic materials that can expect growth in the energy and environment fields. The Ube Group plans to expand its functional inorganic materials business to the 30 billion yen range by fiscal 2015.
