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| January 24, 2005 |
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| Revocation of Agreement on Alliance of Carbon Black Business |
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| Mitsubishi Chemical Corporation |
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Mitsubishi Chemical Corporation (Head Office: Minato-ku, Tokyo, President: Ryuichi Tomizawa) and Tokai Carbon Co., Ltd. (Head Office: Minato-ku, Tokyo, President: Shikio Ohtake) today agreed to revoke the agreement on Alliance of Carbon Black Business disclosed on July 12, 2004 and to withdraw the relevant application for close examination by the Fair Trade Commission. While the proposed alliance has been subject to the examination after the said disclosure, the Commission suggested that the alliance might substantially restrict competition in the Japanese domestic market that is presently short-supplied. After all possible attempts to solve the problem, both companies have eventually come to a conclusion that the current circumstances would admit of no effective measure. Both companies will thus keep operating the business and sharpening the competitive edge independently of each other as before.
Mitsubishi Chemical Corporation is no longer able to expect to the synergies gained by the alliance in terms of production, sales, technology, and others in Japan, and to strengthen the competitive edge of cost. Therefore, in order to strengthen our carbon black business, we will pursue measures as follows:
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Increase the competitive edge of all carbon related businesses based on competitive carbon materials such as coke and tar, including carbon black business. |
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Pursue greater efficiency thoroughly in raw materials, production, sales, logistics, and technology. |
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Examine overseas demand trend carefully and strengthen the supply system in the growing Asian market especially in China, where we identify as one of the important markets for our carbon black business. |
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Further develop high value added products and production technologies which meet the diversified and sophisticated customer needs by maximizing technologies we have built up. |
| For further information, please contact |
| Public Relations and Investor Relations Dept., |
| Mitsubishi Chemical Corporation |
| Tel: [+81]-(0)3-6414-3730 |
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