is the largest

chemical A chemical substance is a unique form of matter with constant chemical composition and characteristic properties. Chemical substances may take the form of a single element or chemical compounds. If two or more chemical substances can be combin ...

company in Japan. Shin-Etsu has the largest global

market share Market share is the percentage of the total revenue or sales in a Market (economics), market that a company's business makes up. For example, if there are 50,000 units sold per year in a given industry, a company whose sales were 5,000 of those ...

for

polyvinyl chloride Polyvinyl chloride (alternatively: poly(vinyl chloride), colloquial: vinyl or polyvinyl; abbreviated: PVC) is the world's third-most widely produced synthetic polymer of plastic (after polyethylene and polypropylene). About 40 million tons of ...

semiconductor A semiconductor is a material with electrical conductivity between that of a conductor and an insulator. Its conductivity can be modified by adding impurities (" doping") to its crystal structure. When two regions with different doping level ...

silicon Silicon is a chemical element; it has symbol Si and atomic number 14. It is a hard, brittle crystalline solid with a blue-grey metallic lustre, and is a tetravalent metalloid (sometimes considered a non-metal) and semiconductor. It is a membe ...

, and

photomask A photomask (also simply called a mask) is an opaque plate with transparent areas that allow light to shine through in a defined pattern. Photomasks are commonly used in photolithography for the production of integrated circuits (ICs or "chips") ...

substrates. “Shin-Etsu” in the company's name derives from

Shin'etsu Region is a geographical region of Japan. The area encompasses the old provinces of Shinano and Echigo. Though the name is a combination of those two provinces, the region also contains Sado Island from Sado Province. It is located in the modern-d ...

, where the company established the first chemical plant as Shin-Etsu Nitrogen Fertilizer in 1926, though the company today is headquartered in Tokyo and has its manufacturing locations in 16 countries worldwide. Shin-Etsu is listed on the

Tokyo Stock Exchange The , abbreviated as Tosho () or TSE/TYO, is a stock exchange located in Tokyo, Japan. The exchange is owned by Japan Exchange Group (JPX), a holding company that it also lists (), and operated by Tokyo Stock Exchange, Inc., a wholly owned sub ...

, where it is a component of the

Nikkei 225 The Nikkei 225, or , more commonly called the ''Nikkei'' or the ''Nikkei index'' (), is a stock market index for the Tokyo Stock Exchange (TSE). It is a price-weighted index, operating in the Japanese yen, Japanese Yen (JP¥), and its compone ...

and TOPIX Core 30 indices.

History

1926–1999

Shin-Etsu Nitrogen Fertilizer Co., Ltd. was founded in 1926 and in 1927 the Naoetsu plant was constructed for the production of

carbide In chemistry, a carbide usually describes a compound composed of carbon and a metal. In metallurgy, carbiding or carburizing is the process for producing carbide coatings on a metal piece. Interstitial / Metallic carbides The carbides of th ...

and lime

nitrogen fertilizer A fertilizer or fertiliser is any material of natural or synthetic origin that is applied to soil or to plant tissues to supply plant nutrients. Fertilizers may be distinct from liming materials or other non-nutrient soil amendments. Man ...

. In 1938 the first facility of the Gunma Complex was established. The company changed its name to Shin-Etsu Chemical Co., Ltd. in 1940. In 1945, the company expanded with the acquisition of the

Takefu is a city located in Fukui Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 83,078 in 20,341 households and a population density of 360 persons per km². The total area of the city was . The modern city of Echizen was establishe ...

plant. In 1949, the company shares were listed on the

Tokyo stock exchange The , abbreviated as Tosho () or TSE/TYO, is a stock exchange located in Tokyo, Japan. The exchange is owned by Japan Exchange Group (JPX), a holding company that it also lists (), and operated by Tokyo Stock Exchange, Inc., a wholly owned sub ...

. The first

silicone In Organosilicon chemistry, organosilicon and polymer chemistry, a silicone or polysiloxane is a polymer composed of repeating units of siloxane (, where R = Organyl group, organic group). They are typically colorless oils or elastomer, rubber ...

production facilities were set up in 1953. Shin-Etsu established Nissin Chemical Industry Co., Ltd. in 1955, which was followed by the establishment of Shin-Etsu Polymer Co., Ltd. in 1960 and two years later the Shin-Etsu Astech Co., Ltd. The Kashima plant was constructed in 1970 and the following year the company headquarters relocated to the Asahi Seimei Otemachi Building in Ohtemachi, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo. In 1972, Shin-Etsu Quartz Products Co., Ltd. was established. In 1973, Shin-etsu established its first

U.S. The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 contiguous ...

-based company named Shintech, Inc., and its first

Malaysia Malaysia is a country in Southeast Asia. Featuring the Tanjung Piai, southernmost point of continental Eurasia, it is a federation, federal constitutional monarchy consisting of States and federal territories of Malaysia, 13 states and thre ...

-based company, S.E.H. Malaysia Sdn. Bhd. Production at the Shintech Freeport plant began in 1976, and that same year the PVC & Polymer Materials Research Center and the Silicone Electronics Materials Research Center were established. In 1985, Shin-Etsu established two more companies in the U.S.: K-Bin, Inc. (U.S.A.) and Shin-Etsu Silicones of America, Inc. Expansion in

Korea Korea is a peninsular region in East Asia consisting of the Korean Peninsula, Jeju Island, and smaller islands. Since the end of World War II in 1945, it has been politically Division of Korea, divided at or near the 38th parallel north, 3 ...

and Taiwan followed with Shin-Etsu Silicone Korea Co., Ltd. in 1986 and Shin-Etsu Silicone Taiwan Co., Ltd. in 1987. In 1988, the company set up an Advanced Functional Materials Research Center and established Shin-Etsu (Malaysia) Sdn. Bhd. In 1996 Shin-Etsu acquired the Australian company Simcoa Operations Pty. Ltd. In 1997, they launched its photoresists business and began production at the Naoetsu Plant in

Niigata Prefecture is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture in the Chūbu region of Honshu of Japan. Niigata Prefecture has a population of 2,131,009 (1 July 2023) and is the List of Japanese prefectures by area, fifth-largest prefecture of Japan by geographic area ...

2000–present

Construction of the first phase of the Shintech Addis plant was completed in 2000, and the second in 2002. The company set up Asia Silicones Monomer Ltd. and Shin-Etsu Silicones Ltd. in Thailand during 2001 and in 2002, Shin-Etsu Chemical established Zhejiang Shin-Etsu High-Tech Chemical Co., Ltd in the Zhejiang Province of China for the production of silicon products. Also that year, JAPAN VAM&POVAL Co., Ltd. was established.

References

External links

Official Website: Shin-Etsu Chemical Co., Ltd.

SE Tylose GmbH & Co. KG
Chemical companies based in Tokyo Plastics companies of Japan Silicon wafer producers Semiconductor companies of Japan Chemical companies established in 1926 Technology companies established in 1926 Japanese companies established in 1926 Companies listed on the Nagoya Stock Exchange Companies listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange Companies in the Nikkei 225 Japanese brands Non-renewable resource companies established in 1926 {{chemical-company-stub

History

1926–1999

2000–present

References

Further reading

External links