Toray Industries
Mr. Masahiko Okamoto (Sr. Exec. Officer, Head of Fin. & Accounting Department and Director)
Mr. Koichi Abe (EVP of IP Div, Global Env Bus., Life Innovation Bus. Strategic Planning. Dept & Technology Center)
Summary
Toray Industries, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, manufactures, processes, and sells fibers and textiles, performance chemicals, carbon fiber composite materials, environment and engineering products, and life science products in Japan, China, North America, Europe, and internationally. The company offers filament yarns, staple fibers, and spun yarns, as well as woven and knitted fabrics of nylon, polyester, acrylics, and others; non-woven fabrics; ultra-fine fibers; and apparel products. It also provides nylon, ABS, PBT, PPS, and other resins and molded products; polyolefin foam products; polyester, polyethylene, polypropylene, and other films; processed film products; raw materials for synthetic fibers and other plastics; fine chemicals; electronic and information materials; and graphic materials. In addition, the company offers carbon fibers, carbon fiber composite materials, and molded products; analysis, physical evaluation, research, and other services; and pharmaceuticals, medical devices, etc. Further, it provides engineering services; condominiums; industrial equipment and machinery; IT-related equipment; water treatment membranes and related equipment; and materials for housing, building, and civil engineering applications. The company was formerly known as Toyo Rayon Co., Ltd. and changed its name to Toray Industries, Inc. in 1970. The company was incorporated in 1926 and is headquartered in Tokyo, Japan.
History
Toray Industries had been originally established as Toyo Rayon in 1926 by Mitsui Bussan, one of the two largest Japanese trading companies of the time . The fact that Mitsui did not allow the company to be named as a Mitsui company indicates their skepticism of the risk on the business. Risk arose from the fact that, when it was established, the company did not have the right technology to produce Rayon. It had approached Courtaulds and then Du Pont to buy the technology but, because the price was too high, it decided to buy equipment from a German engineering company and hire about twenty foreign engineers to start the operation.When Nylon was invented in 1935 by Wallace Carothers of DuPont, Toray immediately got hold of a sample product through the New York City branch of Mitsui Bussan, and started research by dissolving this sample in sulfuric acid. Because of the patent protection, the company had to make its own effort to synthesize polyamide and make fibre out of it. In 1941, just three years after Du Pont's announcement of nylon, Toray completed the basic research on nylon and started building a small plant to produce Nylon 6. The operation started in 1943 and the product was sold, mainly to make fishing nets.
In 1946, following the end of World War II, Du Pont requested an investigation by GHQ of Toray's infringement of Du Pont's nylon patents but GHQ found no evidence of infringement, certifying that Toray's nylon technology was its own.Toray is currently the world's largest producer of carbon fiber, and Japan's largest producer of synthetic fiber. Its carbon fiber is extensively used in exterior components of the Boeing 787 airliner.In 2014, as a major aerospace composites supplier, Toray opened a polyacrylonitrile , the carbon fiber precursor, production line in Lacq, south-western France.
Mission
The growth business fields of Green Innovation Businesses, which contributes to resolving global environmental issues as well as resource and energy issues, and Life Innovation Businesses, which contributes to improvement of healthcare, ease of burden on medical professionals and health and longevity, while pursuing business expansion in Asia, emerging countries and the Americas in terms of growth countries and regions
Key Team
Mr. Hideki Hirabayashi (Corp. VP of CSR & IR, Legal & Compliance Div., Gen Admin & Communications Div. & Tokyo Head Office)
Mr. Hiroshi Otani (Sr. VP, GM of Water Treatment & Environment Division)
Mr. Mitsuo Ohya (EVP of Legal & Compliance Division, Marketing and Sales & Corp. Marketing Planning Dept)
Mr. Minoru Yoshinaga (Sr. VP of Torayca & Advanced Composites Division and Director)
Mr. Satoru Hagiwara (Sr. VP, GM of Film Bus. Division & Director)
Mr. Yasuo Suga (Sr. VP, GM of Corp. Planning Office & Quality Assurance Div HS Dev. Dept. and Director)
Mr. Hirofumi Kobayashi (Sr. VP of Pharmaceuticals & Medical Products Division)
References
Mr. Masahiko Okamoto (Sr. Exec. Officer, Head of Fin. & Accounting Department and Director)
Mr. Koichi Abe (EVP of IP Div, Global Env Bus., Life Innovation Bus. Strategic Planning. Dept & Technology Center)