Today, we introduce the “Journey of HighChem” from the HighChem 25th Anniversary website.
On the website, HighChem’s journey is divided into five periods: “Founding Period – From 1993”, “Growth Period - From 2000”, “Expansion Period - From 2009”, “Development Period - From 2014”, and “Transformation & Leap Period - From 2020”.

During the founding period of HighChem, the Japanese chemical industry was in a period of transformation, with a growing need for cost reduction and strengthening environmental regulations. Many companies, especially those in China, were seeking opportunities abroad. President Takashio seized this need as a business opportunity and established HighChem Co., Ltd. in Japan, becoming a unique bridge between Japan and China in the chemical industry.

There were many problems, such as cultural differences between Japan and China, lack of skills in Chinese factories, and differences in quality perception between Japan and China. Through detailed technical guidance and support to Chinese factories, we increased orders by shaping each business one by one. Also, during this period, we expanded our Chinese branches, starting with Shanghai, followed by Chongqing and Tianjin.

Start of SEG® technology license business 

In 2008, the Lehman Shock occurred, shaking the world economy. This had a significant impact on HighChem’s main business, the fine chemical trade business. We felt the need for diversification of business and started handling basic chemicals and food additives. Under this direction, in 2011, we obtained a pharmaceutical sales manufacturing license and a sales license, and started handling pharmaceutical raw materials. Also, we started shipping the electrolyte solvent DMC to Europe and the United States, paving the way for globalization.
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In response to the Great East Japan Earthquake in 2011, which made it difficult for Japanese companies to procure parts, we secured alternative products from China and contributed to maintaining production at Japanese manufacturers, leading to an increase in customers.

President Takashio became aware of information in China showing that there was a focus on technology to produce ethylene glycol from synthetic gas derived from coal, and started a business to license this technology to Chinese coal chemical companies, etc., in collaboration with UBE Co., Ltd. The SEG® process is divided into two processes, the DMO process and the MEG process, and HighChem needed to establish the MEG process on its own. Therefore, we built a pilot plant with an annual production of 1,500 tons in China and conducted a trial run using our own developed catalyst. We succeeded in obtaining ethylene glycol at a producible product level and established our position as a licensor.

SEG® license business becomes fully-fledged, concluding a total of about 10 million tons of license contracts!

In the “4th 3-Year Plan” in 2017, the trading department decided to reorganize the business with the aim of further growth in the future. We reorganized the organization and personnel significantly to focus on functional chemicals as our core business and high-value-added businesses such as life sciences and electronics, which led to the current large growth of the trading department.
Also, in each of our branches in China, we started full-scale trading of general-purpose resins in China, in addition to agency business for Japanese companies and consignment production and sales business, and greatly grew transactions other than export business in China.

In the SEG® license business, this period saw the peak of license contract conclusion. Among them, the conclusion of the SEG® license of 1.8 million tons per year with Yulin in 2018 was one of the largest in the world and became a case where we also started business investment. By 2019, we had granted a total of 23 licenses for ethylene glycol technology, totaling about 9.4 million tons. 
In addition, in line with the increase in the number of contracts, shipments of catalysts from the Nantong factory were also on a favorable trend.

HighChem, which saw the global trend towards a low-carbon society as a business opportunity, set up a new “Sustainabation” Headquarters. Also, in the new medium-term business plan starting in 2023, HighChem began exploring the possibility of new businesses in fields such as “energy, batteries, lifestyle” based on the C1 chemical technology that HighChem had been working on.

For more details, please visit here.
https://highchem.co.jp/25th/history/