Our company was established in 1936 when the trade division of Sakai Chemical Industry split and became independent, starting with around 20 employees. The main operations at the time were directed towards exports into South-East Asia with the establishment of many sub-branches in China, but with the end of World War II the foreign offices were lost. After the war efforts were made to strengthen the domestic distribution structure.
During the period of high economic growth in the 1960s, foreign offices we established in New York, Taipei, Rotterdam and Singapore* as our import and export operations were re-opened. However, due to the decline in performance triggered by the oil shock at the end of the 1970s, in the first half of the 80s we concentrated our efforts on materials for electronics, an area which showed promise at the time. This coincided with the solidifying of our trade deals.
*The Rotterdam and Singapore offices were later closed.
Our earnings and operations steadily expanded from 1990 onwards, and became listed on the Osaka Securities Exchange in 1994. In the 2000s foreign offices were established in succession in Sydney, Seoul, Dusseldorf, Shanghai, Istanbul and Bangkok. In 2012 a joint venture company was established in Indonesia, leading to our first entrance into manufacturing which brings us to the present day.
Since our foundation we have consistently utilized our strength in being a direct trading company of the diversified chemical corporation Sakai Chemical, in order to offer a diverse and versatile lineup of chemical products to respond to the various needs of the industrial sector and thereby support their creative endeavors.
| February 1936 | Our company was established when the trade division of Sakai Chemical Industry split and became independent. |
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| October 1968 | A subsidiary branch is setup in the United States (New York). |
| April 1994 | Listed on the Osaka Securities Exchange (New 2nd Section, IPO price of 725 yen). |
| February 2002 | Receives ISO14001 certification*1(business bases in Japan). |
| February 2005 | Receives ISO9001 certification*1(business bases in Japan). |
| September 2012 | A joint venture company is established in Indonesia (Surabaya), entrance into manufacturing. |
| July 2013 | Listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange (2nd Section). |
| February 2016 | The company celebrates its 80th anniversary. |
| April 2022 | Changed market classification to the Tokyo Stock Exchange Standard Market.*2 |
*1 The current range of certification is applicable only in Electronic Materials Division.
*2. In August 2023 becomes a wholly owned subsidiary of Sakai Chemical Industry Co., Ltd. and is delisted.
April 1994 Listed on the Osaka Securities Exchange (New 2nd Section).
September 2012 A joint venture company is established in Indonesia (Surabaya).
As a central trading company of the Sakai Chemical Group, we coordinate with each of the other group members in diverse fields. Taking exclusive responsibility for the group's trading capabilities, we answer to the increasingly sophisticated demands of users through the sale of each company's industrial chemical products.
Furthermore, while we make maximum use of the group's products and technological strengths, we do not limit ourselves to markets within the group but expand our trading into our own foreign and domestic markets. While we are a trading company specializing in chemical products, we ventured into electronic materials early on and thus also make deliveries to major electronics manufacturers. In addition, we have proactively expanded our sales in materials that are not dealt with by other companies in the group, such as hygienic materials (primarily the source materials for paper nappies).
The products handled by our company can be generally divided into chemical products, hygienic products, synthetic resins, electronic materials, mineral products and industrial materials. The diversity of these products comes to a combined total of around 10,000 varieties to offer a plentiful lineup.
| Chemical products | We sell a broad range of organic and inorganic chemical products both domestically and internationally. We also handle denitration and deodorizing catalysts that help protect the earth's environment. |
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| Hygienic products | We sell the materials for infant's nappies that are becoming more popular overseas as well as adult's nappies whose sales are expanding domestically due to the ageing population. In addition, we are making sales directed overseas of high liquid absorption resins which are a primary material for nappies. |
| Synthetic resins | Our distributions are centered around acrylic resins, urethane resins and epoxy resins. The resin products we handle are mainly reflective sheets for road traffic markings, reflective cloth for safety apparel and civil engineering material, etc. |
| Electronics materials | We distribute perovskite chemical compounds with a focus on barium titanate, which is ultrafine and also highly dispersive and suited for sintering. It is used in the processing of electronic ceramic parts that are essential for electronic equipment. |
| Mineral products | We principally handle the importation of ilmenite, celestite, barite and others which are the raw minerals for titanium oxide, strontium compound and barium compound. |
| Industrial materials | We trade in construction and civil engineering materials such as sandbags, construction sheets, joint sealant and dust proofing/sand proofing nets. Recently we have been working towards the development and expansion of environmental and disaster prevention products for reconstruction and decontamination by taking advantage of the technologies and achievements we have accumulated to date. |
There has been a growth in revenue related to hygienic materials in recent years. The intended use is as the primary material of paper nappies. South-East Asia has been identified as the most significant market due to increasing population and rapid economic development, with a production branch in Indonesia and a trading subsidiary in Thailand. On the domestic front the market for adult paper nappies is expanding due to the rapidly ageing society, so an increase in the volume of usage in hygienic material elements is expected.
Our company does business with around 2,000 corporations. Every one of our staff members approaches their work everyday with the awareness of being a partner to our clients. We have established a structure where every member of staff can share information regarding industrial movements in a world that changes by the second, and from this we can speedily communicate information that is beneficial to our clients. This allows us to firmly support the endeavors of our valued customers. Moreover, in 2005 we attained ISO9001 certification as we work towards continued improvements in our operations.
As a manufacture-affiliated trading company that has Sakai Chemical Industry as a parent organization, our product knowledge is built on an assured foundation. With this knowledge as a base, we put our focus on what the customer requires and desires right now, searching for the client's underlying needs to present them with the best materials.
To fulfill the increasingly sophisticated needs of our customers, we are able to cooperate with material manufacturers to develop new materials to present to our clients that fit their requirements if current materials fail to do so. We also contribute to the development of materials sought by the market by gathering market information and feeding it back to the material manufacturers who are our partners.
Sakai Trading has looked abroad expansively since our establishment, progressively setting up a global presence with our eight foreign subsidiaries in America, Asia, Oceania and the Middle East. The import/export proportion of our overall revenue is currently around 50%, and we are putting effort into the advancement of our international strategies to increase this percentage even further moving forward.
Around 10% of our entire staff are stationed at our foreign branches, which cultivates a global information network. The information gained there is accumulated, analyzed and transmitted mainly from our Business Promotion Division in Japan. With our light footwork and expertise that sets us apart from larger corporations, we contribute to expanding our clients' business chances through individualized information distribution and proposals that meet the needs of each of our supplier and client companies.
