Germany-based Group company TANIOBIS GmbH (hereinafter “TANIOBIS”) is one of the world’s leading manufacturers of tantalum and niobium materials, with manufacturing and sales locations all around the globe. The Group, TANIOBIS, and Tokyo Denkai Co., Ltd., a refiner and processor of tantalum and niobium, work together to the development of IoT and AI in society by being reliable suppliers of high-quality materials such as metal powders used in capacitors and semiconductor materials, high-purity oxides for SAW devices and optical lenses, chlorides for semiconductors, and superalloy additives.
In the strong market of the first half of fiscal 2022, our main existing business supplying high-purity tantalum powder used in capacitors and sputtering targets for semiconductors did well; however, we entered a period of adjustment in the second half due to the effects of a downturn in the electronics sector.
The market is expected to bottom out in 2023 and then recover. To meet the anticipated steady growth in demand that will follow, we have made the decision to expand production capacity at Tokyo Denkai Co., Ltd., a wholly owned subsidiary since April 2022. As an example of how we are creating a raw material procurement portfolio that is resilient to fluctuations in supply and demand, prices, and other risks, the decision was made to invest in the Mibra Mine in Brazil. This decision means that TANIOBIS will now be able to purchase tantalum concentrates produced at the mine on a preferential basis. In addition to the activities described above, we took aim at expanding our global market share by promoting our Customer First Project, a project in which our people in sales, R&D, and manufacturing are working together to develop a customer-focused business model.
We expect the recession in the electronics sector to bottom out in 2023 and then recover, and we believe that demand for our mainstay product of high-purity tantalum powder used in capacitors and also in sputtering targets for semiconductors, will improve in the same manner. Given that demand is expected to grow, we will promote customer-oriented sales activities, in which sales and engineering are integrated to further expand our market share. At the same time, we will further strengthen our competitiveness by leveraging the specific features and strengths of each of our sites to optimize our product mix and reduce costs. We shall also ensure that our raw material procurement is resilient and implement approved investment projects, such as the expansion of our production facilities in Thailand.
In addition, there will be collaboration between TANIOBIS, Tokyo Denkai Co., Ltd. and other Group companies to strengthen our new-business development system, not only in our tantalum and niobium business, but also across the entire range of minor metals. We shall also seek to quickly make new businesses profitable.
In April 2022, Tokyo Denkai Co., Ltd. became a wholly owned subsidiary, bringing to the Group its superior technology and production capacity in the smelting and refining of high-melting-point metals. The company manufactures ingots to be used for tantalum sputtering targets and has been an important partner in the sputtering target business of our Thin Film Materials Division. Along with TANIOBIS business of powdered tantalum for sputtering targets, the addition of Tokyo Denkai will further strengthen our vertically integrated supply chain and can only improve the resilience of the supply system we have in place for these products. Furthermore, Tokyo Denkai and our Group will accelerate the creation of synergies across the entire range of minor metals, including the expansion of business related to niobium, a metal that has great potential in innovative technologies such as superconductive materials.
Completed ingots
