Research and Development Policy

Makoto Mizutani
Director, Managing Executive Officer
Administrative Management of Research and Development Division

In April 2009, Mitsubishi Gas Chemical(MGC) launched a new mid-term management plan, MGC Will 2011, setting forth the Group’s vision of “aiming for continuous growth as an excellent chemical company with strong presence and differentiation built on proprietary technologies” and as a global citizen committed to the wholehearted practice of CSR.
Based on this vision, the Group endeavors to leverage its “technology platform,” create a partnership between market needs for functionality and the group’s diverse technologies, and develop synergies across all businesses and between group companies.

MGC’s research and development activities are divided into the Company R&D and Corporate Research. The Company R&D is pursuing in line with each company’s business strategies. Based on these business strategies, the united efforts of the R&D, production, and sales divisions within each company are crucial to grasp changing market needs in a timely manner to shorten the product development lead time. Corporate Research, on the other hand, tackles research themes that do not belong to our existing businesses, themes that cut across multiple companies’ fields, and themes that are of long-term significance, as well as technologies and products of the next generation.

MGC has dispatched to the world numerous products based on its core technologies. Moreover, technological innovation never stops, and technology in every field is becoming more sophisticated, specialized, and segmented to the point of obscuring the essence and future direction of technologies. Since the technologies of the future do not necessarily exist on the current roadmap, the ability to navigate through research is more important than ever. and it is essential to create synergies between multiple technologies, and to leverage the collective strength of the MGC Group in research and development, and in the growth of our businesses.
In order to respond to the increasingly complex and intense technological competition, we have developed strategic themes that reflect market needs and aligned the relationships between our core technologies, our products and their functionalities into an integrated technology platform.
MGC’s products are provided to a wide range of industries and include: solid catalysts (methanol), superacids (meta-xylene, meta-xylene derivatives), oxidation (hydrogen peroxide, aromatic carboxylic acid), specialty chemicals (chemicals for semiconductors, liquid crystals), polymerization (polycarbonate, polyacetal, nylon-MXD6), converting (film, sheet), composite material design (BT copper-clad laminates), oxygen absorber design (Ageless), and biotechnology (Coenzyme Q10).

Even if we develop superior technologies and products, it is meaningless if we cannot provide them in a proper lead time. The technology competition is also the competition of “how soon we can provide what the customer wants.” In addition to the high rate of proprietary products, we make positive efforts to form technology alliances with outside (research institutes of companies in the same or different industry, universities, etc.)organizations to increase the efficiency and speed of R&D.
The following is our R&D policy and priority areas.

1. Strengthen and expand core businesses
   • Achieve global cost competitiveness through refinement of production technologies for core products
   • Create next-generation core businesses and products from areas of current product development
   • Reduce energy consumption and environmental impact through process innovation
2. Accelerate new product development and commercialization
   • Focus on growth areas, creating a correlation between the functionality demanded by the market and the technologies required for its realization
   • Strengthen the chemical chain through creation and introduction of new processes
3. Improve total enterprise quality in support of sustainable growth
   • Based on the Group’s commitment to CSR, develop technologies in consideration of the environment and safety

1. Basic chemicals and material production process
   • Chemical production technologies
   • Polymer material production technologies
2. Information and electronics
   • Printed circuit boards, packaging materials
   • Semiconductors
   • Displays
3. Life science & health care
   • Food product and packaging materials
   • supplement
4. Environment and energy

The rate of products developed by our proprietary technologies is more than 90%. By cultivating our R&D culture developed through strong technological expertise, Mitsubishi Gas Chemical Group aims to realize sustainable growth as a truly and highly profitable group focused on research and development.