News

We would like to express our sincere sympathies with all of you who were struck by the 2011 off the Pacific Coast of Tohoku Earthquake that occurred on March 11th, 2011. We are hoping for the early revival in the area that is suffering from the disaster.

We hereby inform you of the current situation of the Shin-Etsu Group’s production sites, which were impacted by the earthquake, as below.

Current situation of Shin-Etsu Group’s plants being out of operations

As of 1:00p.m., March 25 (Japan Time), there has been little change in our situation since our 5th report dated March 22nd. All of operations at both Shin-Etsu Chemical Kashima Plant (Kamisu, Ibaraki Pref.) and Shin-Etsu Handotai Shirakawa Plant (Nishigo Village, Fukushima Pref.) are being wholly halted. Although the aftershocks have been frequently occurring, we are implementing necessary inspections at our plants putting the utmost priority on safety.

Regarding the situation of Shin-Etsu Handotai Shirakawa Plant, although we have not yet fully undertaken inspection work of all facilities and equipments, damages of the production facilities and equipments has been partially observed until now. At present, it is still unclear how long it takes to restore such damages. Although we do our utmost to restore the Shirakawa Plant as early as possible, it is estimated that we are forced to manage the production and shipments based on the limited production capacity for the time being.

As for Shin-Etsu Chemical Kashima Plant, some damages of the production facilities and equipments have been observed until now. In addition, the Kashima industrial complex where the Kashima Plant is located in, received wholly heavy damages in its infrastructure such as the utilities as electric power and water supply and it may take time to re-start the supply of the raw materials. We carry out restoration work in order to re-start the operations at the Kashima Plant when the Kashima industrial complex has been recovered.

Influence of electric power outages

Furthermore, the rolling blackouts implemented by TOKYO ELECTRIC POWER COMPANY and Tohoku-Electric Power Co.,Inc., are affecting the operations at Shin-Etsu Group’s production sites located in their respective electric power supply areas. We will cooperate for reduction and restriction of the usage of electric power with all the Company efforts. Meanwhile, we are requesting the electric power companies to provide a stable supply of electric power because we have facilities and equipments that need to be operated continuously due to the safety reasons.

We will continue to do our utmost for recovery. We will announce the updated information if any situation has changed.