The Japanese based Osaka Soda Group, a major player in the chemical industry in Japan, has formulated a new medium-term management plan called EMPOWER THE NEXT 22, for the period from fiscal 2021 to 2022. This development is following their review of their previous medium-term management plan, BRIGHT 2020 (Fiscal 2020).

The strategic investment will be promoted, including capacity enhancement, large-scale renewal investment, R&D investment, and strengthening of information infrastructure to leap forward from the fiscal year onward, The maximum amount of 10 billion yen in investment and loan is set for M&A and alliance etc.

According to a statement issued by the company, Osaka Soda Group is aiming to further shift their focus to profit-oriented management and are working to raise their corporate value in “creating new growth engines”. The company launched and expanded sales of acrylic rubber and non-phthalate allyl resins. And in establishing a profitable global business the company invested in a U.S. fund and aggressively expanded its speciality chemicals business in North America.

Second, in “completing business structural reform”, an agreement was reached to integrate the electrolysis equipment of the Fukuoka Plant of Mitsubishi Chemical Corporation with that of the company’s Ogura Plant and to further expand the scale of business in the Kyushu region and strengthen cost competitiveness by streamlining production.
However, in fiscal 2020, while the pharmaceutical-related business performed strongly, performance targets were not achieved due to continued sluggish performance in Basic Chemicals and Functional Chemicals, which is mainly in automobile-related products, because the economic activities were restricted by the spread of COVID-19 infection.

The statement further adds that ``we have backcasted from the ideal image of fiscal 2035 to drawn up “what we should do” in fiscal 2025 and our performance targets. However, the world economy is expected to recover from the downturn caused by COVID-19 infection due to expectations for vaccination effects and economic measures taken by each country, but full-fledged economic recovery is unlikely to continue. For this reason, the company has outlined a two-year plan starting in fiscal 2021 and have set the period for implementing measures aimed at achieving growth during the period of full-fledged recovery.

According to the EMPOWER THE NEXT—22, it will be all about building a resilient business foundation for the Chemicals business, Functional Materials business and Healthcare Business. All these will be positioned as core business and a resilient strategy will be pursued.

(1) Chemicals business (Basic Chemicals segment) The company will build a structure that generates stable earnings with strong resilience to changes in the business environment as the earnings base that supports the growth strategies of the functional products business and the health care business.

(2) Functional Materials business (Functional Chemicals segment) As a growth engine, the company will work to deepen the market for global niche-top products, develop new applications, and launch new products.

(3) Health Care business (Functional Chemicals segment) To respond to changes in pharmaceutical modalities, expand existing businesses in APIs, intermediates, and refining materials, and enhance technology and product lineups to acquire new projects.

Finally, the promotion of market-in-type development The company aims for early market launch by accurately grasping customer needs under the leadership of the business division, planning new products together with the R&D division, and quickly developing them. The company will promote development themes that make full use of originality in the fields of mobility, information and communication, environment and energy, and health and healthcare.