News Release

HighChem Co., Ltd. (Headquarters: Minato-ku, Tokyo; President and CEO: Ushio Taka) has formulated a mid-term management plan (the 6th four-year plan: fiscal years 2023-2026) aims to achieve a long-term vision of reaching 1 trillion yen in sales by the fiscal year 2034.

This year, HighChem celebrates its 25th anniversary since its establishment. Looking back over the 25-year history, it's remarkable to see that just 12 years after its founding, the company surpassed 10 billion yen in sales. Moreover, 12 years later, in the last fiscal year, consolidated sales reached 101.597 billion yen and achieved the milestone of exceeding 100 billion yen for the first time. And now, aiming for the grand dream of reaching "Sales of 1 trillion yen" — a significant leap by an order of magnitude — by the fiscal year 2034, 12 years from now, HighChem has adopted the slogan "All for 1 for All." This slogan reflects HighChem's commitment to not only to expand its diversity through its employees, who come from a variety of backgrounds and specialties, and its wide range of business activities, but also to unify their hearts and efforts as one. It signifies the company's aspiration to become a trillion-yen enterprise that transcends just chemistry and scale, aiming to offer truly valuable services for society. 

In order to achieve our long-term goals for the fiscal year 2034, HighChem divided 12 years into four years segments and formulated a medium-term management plan. In the final year of the first four-year segment of the 12 years, which will be fiscal year 2026, HighChem aims to achieve sales of 166.8 billion yen. This represents a 64% increase compared to fiscal year 2022 and serves as the initial milestone towards accomplishing the goal of reaching 1 trillion yen by 2034.​

We will promote a business strategy that combines "deepening" and "exploration" as a basic stance toward our ambitious goal of 1 trillion yen. "Deepening" means deepening our existing core businesses and further strengthening our profit structure. Furthermore, after solidifying this basic foundation, we will invest in the field of "exploration" and thoroughly research the surrounding areas of our business to expand opportunities and develop new products and services.

In terms of business areas, we are promoting business in five areas: "Chemicals," "Electronics," "Life science," "Energy," and "Lifestyle."

Chemicals

In the trade between Japan and China, the fine chemical market is approximately 800 billion yen, and HighChem is already a leading company in this field. While further solidifying this position, we will also explore downstream into the multi-trillion yen chemical products and materials industry. Furthermore, we are considering M&A with companies that have solid technology and customer network but are unable to expand sales due to resource issues. We will strengthen the North American market which we have already entered, as well as expand into Europe, India, and Southeast Asia. We will accelerate our global expansion in earnest.

Electronics

HighChem plans to further expand Trading Business and is focusing on importing and exporting sophisticated semiconductor materials and electronic materials between Japan and China based on Chemical trade, and is hiring highly skilled human resources and developing new products. Furthermore, by collaborating with research organizations and venture companies, we will develop our own distinctive technologies and build a supply chain, promoting the development and branding of our own products.

Life science

As part of our Life science business, HighChem is strengthening its handling of agricultural Chemicals, pharmaceuticals and healthcare, food and health materials, and more. In the future, the pharmaceutical market is predicted to expand globally due to the aging of the population, and the agrochemical market is expected to fluctuate in demand by country and region due to the declining birthrate. We will also explore expansion into the product and formulation market. Furthermore, in the area of food and health materials, HighChem will also expand into markets such as China, India, and Southeast Asia. This expansion will focus on products and services aimed at improving QOL, leveraging Japan's expertise in this field.

Energy

In the Energy field, in addition to further expanding the range of our battery materials business for EVs (electric vehicles), we will use C1 Chemicals and catalyst technologies that HighChem has cultivated to date to focus on various batteries, hydrogen Energy, and SAF (sustainable aviation fuels).

Lifestyle

In the Lifestyle field, we announced Next-generation Polylactic acid material made from PLA (polylactic acid), and are expanding it into the domestic and overseas markets as a new material. At HighChem, we have focused on PLA as a material that has the cost structure and production capacity to replace petroleum-derived polyester, and have been developing it. On the other hand, PLA has issues such as strength and heat resistance, and we are working to resolve these issues through alliances with companies that have unique PLA technologies and at our own research facilities. In addition, we will continue to make sustainable proposals for the future fashion industry, such as by starting the development of fibers that use CO2 as a resource.

Media inquiries regarding this release
HighChem Co., Ltd. PR Division – Eriko Kuroiwa
E-mail: kuroiwa@highchem.co.jp Phone: +81-3-5251-8580 / +81-90-6539-4213 (Kuroiwa)