Showa Denko consolidates Hitachi Chemical, changes firm name

Tokyo – Showa Denko is consolidating the recently acquired Hitachi Chemical Co., changing the company’s name to Showa Denko Materials as of 1 Oct.

The move, approved during the 23 June annual general shareholders’ meeting, will combine Showa Denko Group’s material technology with Hitachi Chemical’s material design knowhow, said a Showa Denko release.

To be led by Hisashi Maruyama, the new company’s scope of work will include the manufacturing, processing, and sales of functional materials and advanced components and systems.

Showa Denko completed the €8-billion acquisition of Hitachi Chemical's share at the end of April. 

The merger aims to enable the Japanese group to better meet global market demands around digitalisation, lightweight and composite automotive materials and speciality semiconductors.

Showa Denko already has the ‘world’s largest share’ in markets for electronic gases, media for hard-disk drives and graphite electrodes and aims to extend this status to over half of its overall portfolio.

Hitachi Chemical is focused on the areas of information and communications; mobility; energy; and life science and is aiming to transform itself into a “the global-top, high-functionality material manufacturer.”

Announcing the planned acquisition in December last year, Showa Denko noted the economies of scale now being achieved by rival Chinese material manufacturers and the cost-competitiveness of Middle East players with increasing upstream capabilities. 

In this environment, it is important for Japanese material manufacturers “to accelerate business growth as a global leader with the top market share in an appropriate market size,” said Showa Denko.

The merger, it continued, would create “a new leading material producer aiming to provide solutions and having many businesses with leading market shares.”