The company currently ships scraps from
discarded home electronics and those from magnet producers it procures in Japan
to Vietnam and collects rare earths using solvent in its Vietnam plant. It is
currently 200 tons of rare earths annually on a trial basis in Vietnam. It will
increase the annual production capacity of its Vietnam plant to 600 tons with
an investment of about 300 billion yen by next spring with upgraded electrolytic
furnace and new private electric generator. Showa Denko is a leading producer
of rare earth alloys, and it commands a 40% market share in the eco-car market
in Japan. It currently produces 5,000-6,000 tons of rare earth alloys
domestically, and most materials are imported from China.
The Japanese industrial market is growing more dynamic, more competitive, and more demanding.
Saturday, December 24, 2011
No. 2: Decreasing the dependence on China for rare earths (December 25, 2011)
Showa Denko plans to triple the production
of materials for rare earths in Vietnam by next summer. They are alloy
materials that contain rare earth, such as dysprosium and neodymium, and iron.
They are base materials for high-performance magnets for motors to be mounted
on eco-cars. In the future, the company will procure rare earths from mines in
Vietnam to produce the materials locally to decrease the dependence on China
for rare earths. These decisions are to meet the growing demand for rare
earths in the eco-car business.
Thursday, December 22, 2011
No. 1: Competition between electronic parts producers grows hotter in the eco-car business (December 23, 2011)
According to a research company, sales of
electronic parts including battery for eco-cars will grow seven times over the level in 2010
to about 3,000 billion yen in 2015. However, it is hardly possible to have
presence in the market overnight because security and reliability are the two
most important factors for EVs. Nichicon, the leading producer of aluminum
electrolytic capacitors, started to develop battery chargers for EVs in
alliance with automakers in 2002. The tireless efforts enabled the company to
supply its products to Nissan’s Leaf and Mitsubishi’s I-MiEV, and double the
operating profit in the second quarter of 2011 over the same period of the previous
year.
Electronic parts producers are mostly
subcontractors supplying their products to big electronic parts producers like
Denso. However, they can be partners in new EV development as a prime
contractor if their products are accepted as a major product of a new EV. TDK,
the leading producer of ferrite-based products, succeeded in halving the volume
of its converter to less than one liter and concluded with Honda to supply its
DC-DC converters to Honda’s Insight.
A gasoline engine vehicle has more than
30,000 parts, while an EV has 30% fewer parts than a gasoline engine vehicle. Worldwide
sales of new vehicles are 80 million units annually. Although sales of EVs are
still 50,000 units at present, the industrial structure of parts production
will face transformation as the EV market grows. Electronic parts products are
required to formulate strategy on how to make the best use of their accumulated
technologies to survive in the market.
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