Mitsubishi Rayon is pleased to announce the start of its sixth medium-term management plan, which will run from fiscal 2008 to fiscal 2010 and goes under the name of Global US → 2010. (“US” is short for “Uniqueness and Specialties”, reflecting the Company’s pursuit of superior proprietary technologies.)
    The Mitsubishi Rayon Group has adopted as its long-term management vision the development of the Group into a high-earnings, strong-growth corporate entity. This will achieved by strategic investments in the Group’s core Acrylics Business (producing acrylic fiber and AN monomer and its derivatives), and by transforming the Group through the continuous adoption stronger business models, as well as the active employment of alliances and M&A strategies.
    Our long-term objectives for our MMA chain include expanding the scale of the business to become the world’s No. 1. earner in this field. To this end, we have set a concrete target of ¥1 trillion in sales for the entire Group by 2015 or thereabouts.
    Amid rapid changes in the business environment that began in fiscal 2007, the sixth medium-term management plan takes up where the fifth plan left off in addressing the theme of achieving continuous growth. At the same time, we will be addressing potentially critical problems in the company’s existing businesses. The new plan also sets higher business performance targets, including ¥500 billion in annual sales (operating income of ¥40 billion) as the first step on the road to our ultimate goal of passing the ¥1 trillion annual sales mark.

1.Overview

The sixth medium-term plan has been drawn up to enable the Mitsubishi Rayon Group to secure its position in the world markets for its core businesses. The plan takes into account the dramatic changes that have been and are still occurring in the business environment on a global scale, and provides carefully designed responses by the Group to the issues of environmental degradation and corporate social responsibility, which are becoming priority matters all over the world. The plan also sets out prescriptions for the investment of management resources in new businesses so as to nurture them into the core earners of the next generation. The aim is to create a corporate group that is capable of effectively deploying its unique specialties on a global scale.

2.Priority Issues

Expanding MMA operations
With regard to the value chain of our MMA (methyl methacrylate) business, we aim to build ourselves a position of undisputed leadership in the global market with respect to product quality, operational scale, and earnings.
    Following investments in the construction of new production facilities and the expansion of existing facilities, we plan to adopt the full available range of tools for realizing further growth, including more capital investment, corporate alliances, and M&A. In parallel, we will be investing money and efforts in expanding our MMA value chain through development of new products and materials in the polymer, copolymer, and optical materials fields, as well as new applications and markets.

Overhauling our portfolio of AN businesses
In our AN (acrylonitrile) business, we aim to downsize our production of acrylic fiber for use in apparel and interior goods while expanding our operational scale in carbon fiber precursor. We will pursue a strategy of leveraging our comprehensive acrylonitrile-related value chain, which ranges from AN monomer through carbon fiber precursor to carbon fibers and composite materials. This should enable us to add new materials to our lineup, expand our range of high-value-added materials, and increase our production capacity. In these ways, we will enhance our unique and competitive businesses.

[3]Tackling unprofitable businesses

To enable us to allocate management resources where they will be most effective, we will identify businesses that are not only unprofitable, but which have little or no synergy with our other operations, and which are thought to have few prospects of future growth. Businesses judged to tick these boxes will be radically restructured.

[4]Cultivating next-generation core businesses

To achieve continuous growth, the Mitsubishi Rayon Group must cultivate new businesses that will become the Group’s next core businesses (after the MMA and AN businesses) in the next generation. We have committed ourselves to searching for new businesses fields that have continuous growth potential. Particularly promising candidates as of present include water purification and related businesses, automotive-related businesses, and electronic component-related businesses.