Founded in 1920 as a producer of basic chemicals such as caustic soda and chlorine, Nippon Soda (the Company) has kept pace with Japanese industrial growth through constant expansion of our business domains. Today our customers worldwide employ a wide variety of our industrial products, including caustic soda, chlorine, hydrochloric acid, caustic potash, sodium cyanide, potassium carbonate, phosphorus compounds and sodium metal.

In dye stuff chemicals, we manufacture fluorescent whitening dyes for paper and cloth, and thermal-sensitive and pressure-sensitive chemicals and color formers, which are increasingly used for facsimile paper and bar code labels.The Company holds a significant position in the market for Methionine, an essential amino acid widely used as a feed additive for poultry and pig farming.

In specialty chemicals, the Company has developed highly functional polymers used for industrial paints and glue and has exploited this technology to manufacture a semiconductor photo-resist material.

Further, the Company is in the forefront of developing new products and technologies that safeguard the environment and promote comfortable living. In the water treatment field, the Company has achieved a high market share in sterilizers and disinfectants of water discharged from septic tanks and pools. In addition to marketing our heavy metal chelating agent designed for fly ash treatment at waste incineration plants and our urolith removers for toilets, the Company launched a new slime remover for drains in the bathroom. The Company磗 unique organic synthetic technology precisely satisfies pharmaceutical industry demand with the development and marketing of essential bases, intermediates and additives. The Company was the first to establish mass production technology for AOSA (acetoxyazetidinone), an intermediate for penem and carbapenem antibiotics. We also originated joint development with Suntory Ltd. and Yamanouchi Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. for the world磗 first oral penem antibiotic, FAROPENEM-Sodium, and supplies the base for this biotic. The Company is Japan磗 only company to produce HPC (hydroxyl propyl cellulose), an additive used in the manufacture of pharmaceuticals.

We also proactively develop the treatment system by dechlorination for PCBs.