Kureha Corporation

Kureha Corporation (株式会社クレハ, Kabushiki-gaisha Kureha) is a Japanese manufacturer of specialty chemicals, polymers and agrichemicals.^[3]

Kureha Corporation

Native name	株式会社クレハ
Company type	Public KK
Traded as	TYO: 4023
ISIN	JP3271600003
Industry	Chemicals
Founded	June 21, 1944; 81 years ago (1944-06-21)
Headquarters	Nihonbashi, Chuo-ku,Tokyo, 103-8552 , Japan
Area served	Worldwide
Key people	Yutaka Kobayashi (President and CEO)
Products	Functional materials Specialty chemicals Plastics
Revenue	JPY 147.3 billion (FY 2017) (US$ 1.39 billion) (FY 2017)
Net income	JPY 9.7 billion (FY 2017) (US$ 91.5 million) (FY 2017)
Number of employees	4,374 (consolidated, as of March 31, 2018)
Website	Official website
Footnotes / references [1][2]

Corporate affairs

Kureha Chemical Industries is a member of the Mizuho keiretsu.

Products

Polyglycolic acid

One of the company's long-term investments is in polyglycolic acid (PGA). The company developed a mass scale manufacturing technique for the chemical, which has been a development project of the company since the early 90s.^[4] The company has stated a strategy of committing to invest in PGA for a long period, patiently waiting for market demand to develop.^[4] To manufacture PGA, the company invested 100 million in a manufacturing facility in Belle, West Virginia to be located nearby a Dupont plant that produces glycolic acid, a primary feedstock for PGA.^[4]

Polyphenylene sulfide

Kureha is the world's largest producer of polyphenylene sulfide, a heat-resistant polymer is used in industrial applications such as automotive electronics.^[4] The polymer its produced at the company's site in Iwaki, Japan^[5] and in Wilmington, United States by Fortron Industries, a joint venture of Kureha and Celanese.^[6]