Directory // HOME / News / September 22,2004 Press release in Chemical Industry Daily (September 22,2004) A New President Takes Office - Mr. Masao Ohta - Resources to be Directed at Hydroprocessing Catalysts Would you mind sharing your honest feelings about taking the president's office and your resolutions? "It literally made my body stiffen with a sense of responsibility. I made a resolution to make contributions to Nippon Ketjen by relying on my knowledge and experience, as well as personal connections, that I have built over the years. I had approximately eight months of preparation time before I took office. I met with approximately 100 people individually during that time. They included Japanese and foreign people involved with the company, including those within the company and those from the parent company. Through these meetings, I was able to determine strengths and areas of improvement of the company. Based on this understanding, I was able to communicate my thoughts directly to all employees and contract workers in the form of a vision statement when I came in (on June 1)." Could you tell us a little about your future management policies and the direction that your business will follow? "(Our company) has over 30 years of history in the field of petroleum hydroprocessing catalysts, and is highly recognized for our product development and production technology. In the future, we will share R&D and production technology know-how with Albemarle Catalysts and continue to lead the development of new catalysts. We have captured customer needs by flexibly developing, producing and selling catalysts in response to changes in environmental regulations. Our success can be attributed to the foresight and correct judgment exercised by Mr. Naka, the company's previous president. Following this course of business that has been laid out, we will continue to strive to raise our products' value to our customers by focusing our business resources on the key areas, making prompt decisions, and concentrating our efforts on hardware sale, as well as technical support and other services. Internally, we will pursue optimization of our entire operation, such as by delegating greater authority to individual departments and, at the same time, establishing a cross-departmental decision-making body, based on speed-up of processes of catalyst development, prototype creation and mass production, as well as ongoing cost reductions. Further revitalization are planned in connection with information disclosure and human resource programs including the adoption of merit system and long-term employment." What about business strategies based on the strengths of ultra deep desulfurization catalysts and future outlook? "Our basic strategy is to continue to focus our business resources on the hydroprocessing catalysts (HPC) business, which is a growth segment from a global stand point. Over a medium-term, we plan to increase our production capacity with additional facilities and improvements. In addition, we hope to expand aggressively into the Asian market, including Indonesia, Singapore, the Philippines, South Korea and Taiwan. We will step up our efforts on not only ultra deep desulfurization catalysts, which remove sulfur from fuel oil, but also on heavy oil treatment catalysts and hydrocracking catalysts. Additionally, we have our own catalyst regeneration facilities in Japan, so we have a proprietary technology named REACT to rejuvenate spent catalysts. We will run this operation as a way to meet customer needs for catalyst regeneration by tying it with the life cycle assessment (LCA) of catalysts." Sale of catalyst operations by Akzo Nobel has led your company to form an alliance with Albemarle. "The catalyst industry is not immune from the trend of business selections and consolidation among the world's chemical companies. In the future, we hope to strengthen our exploration and pursuit of growing fields through the alliance with Albemarle and basic research to be jointly conducted with Japanese university research groups. Even though our partner has changed from Akzo to Albemarle, no change has taken place in the systems of catalyst development and licensing. Increased synergetic effects can be expected in the areas of strategic expansions and renovations. Our medium- to long-term target is to achieve sales in excess of \10 billion, including the exploration of new fields. Copyright NIPPON KETJEN Co.,Ltd. All Rights Reserved. | Terms of Use |