| June 12, 2007 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Toray to Expand Production Capacity of Romembra Reverse Osmosis Membranes and Elements for Water Treatment |
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The Company plans to install state-of-the-art high-speed polyamide composite membrane production equipment and automated element rolling machines at the new facilities. The move, which is aimed at responding to the rapid expansion of the RO membrane market around the world and further improving the quality of the products, is expected to boost its production capacity for RO membranes in Japan and the U.S. in terms of desalination plant capacity by 1.8 times to 7.25 million m³/day by this autumn. The Company estimates the combined capital investment in Japan and the U. S. at approximately 7 billion yen. The new facility at Ehime Plant is expected to start operating in November this year and the production facility at TMUS, newly established in June 2006, has started operations in April earlier this year. Global Expansion of Toray’s Reverse Osmosis Membrane Business: Efforts Led by Japan, Europe and U.S. Currently the efforts to expand the Company’s RO membrane business globally are being promoted by its business bases in Japan, U.S. and Europe. In the U.S., the Company established a wholly owned subsidiary TMUS targeting Americas in 2006, which started production from the end of April earlier this year. Along with the move, the Company is scheduled to dissolve Toray Membrane America, Inc., or TMA, which is a joint venture with GE/Ionics, at the end of June this year. In Europe, Toray Membrane Europe AG, or TMEu, plays the leading role in sales in the European and Middle Eastern markets. In December 2000, Toray took a 29% stake in Ropur AG (established in 1983), an RO membrane marketing company, and subsequently boosted its stake to 60% in March 2003 to acquire control of the Swiss company. In January 2004, the Company appointed its own employee as the president and chief executive officer while changing the company name to Toray Membrane Europe, whose current equity ratio is 90%. As a vital base for handling the European and Middle Eastern markets, TMEu has been involved in the sales of RO membranes and production of RO membrane elements in the region. The market for RO membranes is growing at an annual rate of about 8% buoyed by intensifying water shortages around the world and requirements for development of environment-friendly water resources, and a steady market expansion is expected primarily in the U.S., Europe, Middle East, North Africa and China. In addition to the existing demand in seawater/brackish water desalination plants and in industrial use such as boiler feed water production, new markets are evolving in applications such as urban wastewater reuse, boosting expectations for further growth in demand. With its world-leading high-performance membrane technology at the core, the Company is committed in actively promoting global expansion of membrane marketing as well as the water treatment system business of its water treatment business in collaboration with domestic and overseas group companies (Japan: Suido Kiko Kaisha, Ltd., Toray Engineering Co., Ltd., etc.; overseas: TMEu, TMUS, Toray Fibers & Textiles Research Laboratories (CHINA) Co., Ltd., etc.). The expansion of its production facilities is part of the measures based on this business strategy and is aimed at further enhancing the RO membrane business. History and Features of Toray’s Membrane Business Toray’s RO membrane business dates back to 1968, when the Company began related research and development activities. Ever since it began supplying high-performance membranes for producing ultra-pure water in 1980s, the Company has been expanding the business into fields such as seawater/brackish water desalination based on improved functionality of RO membranes, production of various industrial process water and wastewater recycling. Specifically, the Company’s track record in the domestic seawater desalination field includes delivery to the seawater desalination plant in Okinawa (capacity of 40,000 m³ of water per day). Overseas, the Company has delivered membrane elements to the Trinidad and Tobago seawater desalination plant (in 2001, 136,000 m³ per day), the largest such plant in the western hemisphere; Tuas seawater desalination plant in Singapore (in 2005, 136,000 m³ per day), the largest in Asia excluding the Middle East, and Hamma desalination plant in Algeria (scheduled to begin operations in 2007, 200,000 m³ per day), the largest in Africa. The cumulative orders at Toray including the aforementioned projects measured in terms of desalination capacity in the seawater water desalination field is 1.9 million m³ per day, making it one of the top suppliers in the market. In wastewater reclamation segment also, Toray’s low fouling RO membrane element is rapidly gaining in popularity with its track record for supplying to facilities including the Sulaibiya Plant in Kuwait (in 2004, 320,000 m³ per day), the world’s largest such plant, and the Seletar Plant in Singapore (in 2005, 24,000 m³ per day). The Company’s water treatment membranes are based on its core technologies of synthetic organic chemistry, polymer chemistry, biochemistry and nano-technology. As a comprehensive membrane manufacturer, the Company offers all four types of permeation membranes -- RO membrane; nano-filtration (NF) membrane, which can remove high molecular-weight dissolved particles; ultra-filtration (UF) membrane; and micro-filtration (MF) membrane, which can completely remove minute particles and bacteria. It has also developed the membrane bio reactor (MBR) used in wastewater treatment. Growing the water treatment business into Strategically Expanding Business leading to profit expansion in 2010 onwards The Company formulated a new long-term management vision “AP-Innovation Toray 21” in April 2006 and embarked on its new mid-term business strategies “Project Innovation Toray 2010” in October the same year. The Company focuses its management resources on the Foundation Businesses of Fibers & Textiles and Plastics & Chemicals, which form the base for securing stable profits, as well as the Strategically Expanding Businesses of IT-related Products and Carbon Fiber Composite Materials, which bring in medium- to long-term profit expansion. At the same time, the Company intends to preferentially allocate its management resources to the water treatment business along with the Life Science business, the Strategically Developing Businesses that are expected to lead profit expansion from 2010, to transform itself into a highly profitable business group and become the world leader in advanced materials. The Company intends to actively promote its membrane business based on its “membrane and its application technologies,” which are of the highest standards in the world. The profile of the new company Toray Membrane USA, Inc. is as follows: |
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