Employing advanced metal fabrication technology developed over many years of business, JX Metals has become a global supplier of treated rolled copper foils used in flexible printed circuit boards, as well as of precision Cu alloy products, including titanium copper, Corson alloy, and phosphor bronze, which are used in connectors, semiconductor lead frames, and other components.
Sales volumes of our main products in the first half of fiscal 2022 continued to be strong due to demand created by people telecommuting and their other online activities during the COVID-19 pandemic. In fact, sales volumes reached a half-year record high during the period. In the second half of fiscal 2022, however, sales volumes were significantly lower compared to the same period of the previous year. This reduction was due to the economic slowdown caused by restrictions on economic activity in China, as well as other factors, and the resulting adjustments made to inventory levels in supply chains.
Although these effects are expected to continue in the next fiscal year, in the medium- to long-term, as the data society advances, we anticipate further expansion in the markets for data centers, telecommunications infrastructure, power devices and for various electronic devices, such as smartphones and tablets. In addition, we envisage demand for high-performance metals to further increase with the electrification and automation of vehicles. In response to future growth in demand, we will achieve further improvements in efficiency and productivity, and by bolstering Group manufacturing facilities, will increase manufacturing capacity at each of the Group’s sites thus expanding our production structures and strengthening our business foundations.
We expect that the economic slowdown in China and other overseas countries will continue in fiscal 2023, as will adjustments to inventory levels in the supply chain, with it taking some time for demand to recover. However, over the medium- to long-term, we anticipate demand for the high-performance metals used in IT-related equipment will continue to grow.
Fiscal 2023 will be important for us as we will gain a foothold in this year from which we can strengthen our overall structure so as to expand sales when things pick up in the future. We will make capital investments in rolling mills at the Hitachi New Plant (tentative name) and Hitachinaka New Plant (tentative name), while at the same time increasing production capacity at existing facilities by improving yields and productivity. In addition, we will pursue alliances with other companies, such as outsourcing manufacturing and forming joint ventures to ensure our production system is flexible, and we shall also move forward with our Business Continuity Plan (BCP) and ensure we have risk diversification.
We have constructed a new building for R&D at Kurami Works, our main business base. The goal here is to enhance the way we conduct R&D in response to the further development of the IoT and AI society. The facility was brought online in stages as equipment was installed, and operations started in March 2023.
Kurami Works, one of the main bases of our Focus Businesses, develops, produces, and supplies high-value-added products such as treated rolled copper foil, used in flexible circuit boards, and high-performance copper alloys, which are used in various advanced devices. Such alloys include titanium copper and Corson alloys.
The strength of Kurami Works has always been its highly customer focused, fast-track development capabilities. This allows customer needs to be swiftly identified and products quickly developed and launched that meet these needs ahead of our competitors.
In addition to further accelerating our efforts to improve our existing products and develop new alloys and alloy foils, we will also work to improve how we find new applications and develop new materials that have a high degree of affinity with our proprietary technologies. We will also further enhance our core technologies, which include melting, rolling, and heat treating, and this will lead to more efficient material development, productivity improvements, and better designed plant and facilities.
R&D Tower Kurami Works (Kanagawa Prefecture)
