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Tokyo , Japan – Tosoh F-TECH, Inc., announced a price increase for 2,2,2-Trifluoroethanol (TFEA), effective for all shipments worldwide September 1, 2008. A Company spokesman stated that it was necessary to implement a price structure that could cover the rapidly rising cost of resources, energy, transportation, and crude oil. Prices for the TFEA raw material hydrofluoric acid have also jumped and the Company attempts to maintain profitability internally were overshadowed by rising external costs. Therefore to support investment to stabilize future supplies it was determined to implement a price increase above JPY 300 per kilogram for TFEA. As the present rise in raw materials is also having a negative impact on the cost to produce fluorine products other than TFEA, Tosoh F-TECH will implement price adjustments for these products as required.

F-TECH (Head Office, 3-2-4, Kyobashi, Chuo-ku, Tokyo, Capital - JPY: 400 million, President - Isao Miyanohara), a wholly owned subsidiary of TOSOH CORPORATION, will change its corporate identity to "TOSOH F-TECH" effective on October 1. Following the dissolving of its merger with TAIHEIYO CEMENT CORPORATION and becoming a wholly owned subsidiary of TOSOH CORPORATION in November last year, the new name makes it clear that the company is a member of the Group. In the future, F-TECH will strengthen its business in organic intermediates for pharmaceutical and electronics materials, making closer liaisons with the fine chemicals companies of the Group such as TOSOH FINECHEM.

F-TECH, an organofluorine compounds manufacturer established in 1975 under the capital equally supplied by TOSOH CORPORATION and TAIHEIYO CEMENT CORPORATION, is the biggest manufacturer of Trifluoroethanol, used for anesthetics and agricultural chemicals, with a more than 60 % share of the world market. The company owns a plant adjacent to the Nanyo Complex of TOSOH CORPORATION (Shin-Nanyo-shi, Yamaguchi) and secured about JPY 2,300 million of sales last year.

The company made clearer its strategy as a development oriented enterprise specializing in fluorine chemistry even after becoming a wholly owned subsidiary of TOSOH CORPORATION and is expanding its business in functional chemicals such as high purity etching gases for semiconductors and also its business in organic intermediates for pharmaceuticals.

The company intends to take this occasion to make clear that the company is a member of TOSOH GROUP, and further strengthen its liaisons with the group enterprises including TOSOH FINECHEM, which owns organometallic compounds and low temperature reaction technologies, and TOSOH ORGANICS, which specializes in bromination technology in order to build up strong bases for business in organic intermediates including custom synthesis.

F-TECH, INC. a 100% owned subsidiary of TOSOH CORPORATION, has strengthened its custom synthesis business. Based on its novel fluorination technology and experience on fluorinated building blocks, the company is addressing itself earnestly to market development centering on intermediates for pharmaceutical, agricultural and electronics materials. Accordingly, its Nanyo Plant (Shin-Nanyo-shi Yamaguchi) has started reinforcement of multipurpose plant for F2 gas fluorination, and the facilities for developmental scale production, to be completed by the end of this month. The capacity for the custom synthesis business after completion of the work will almost double, so that the above business can contribute 40% of total sales and enable the company to meet requests of a wide range from users.

F-TECH is the specialist in fluorine chemistry in the Tosoh Group and, especially known for having a 60 % share of the world market in trifluoroethanol, used for anesthetics and agricultural chemicals.

The company has strong fluorination capability with a lineup of electrophilic fluorinating agents and fluorine gas. In addition, the company has a substantial experience on manufacturing Trifluoroethanol, its derivatives and building blocks such as alkanes, alkenes, alcohols and carboxylic acids containing fluorine in the molecule.

Based on these technologies, F-TECH is directing its efforts to expansion of custom manufacturing, and the Nanyo Plant has started enlargement of its developmental multipurpose plant for custom manufacturing with F2 and of its organic synthesis facilities.

The company can offer versatile solutions for other reactions and product requests because it can obtain the cooperation of the other enterprises of Tosoh group equipped with GMP facilities, it plans to proceed with creation of a totally new organization that can raise the ratio of consigned manufacturing to 40% from the present 30%.

On November 30th F-TECH, Inc. became a wholly owned subsidiary of the Tosoh Group. The remaining shares in F-TECH were acquired from Taiheiyo Cement Corporation. F-TECH, one of the three main pillars of Tosoh’s organic intermediate business, has developed a special fluorination technology used as the raw material for anesthesia and high purity etching gas in semiconductor production. F-TECH is primarily involved in the development of organic intermediates that have a wide variety of applications as the base materials in the production of pharmaceuticals, agrochemicals, aromatics and electronic materials. F-TECH was incorporated as a Japanese corporation in 1975 and now has 70 employees with sales of JPY 2.3 billion (fiscal 2001). The main facilities are based at the Nanyo Complex. As Tosoh moves forward with global expansion of the Specialty Group, F-TECH will continue to play a crucial role in providing custom synthesis. To supply the diverse demands of this market, Tosoh combines the capabilities of the three group companies; Tosoh Finechem Corporation, Tosoh Organic Co., Ltd., and F-TECH, Inc. Tosoh Corporation continues to strategically build a stronger business structure to supply organic intermediates and ultimately a more diverse Specialty Group for the future.

F-TECH, INC. (Head office: Chuo-ku, Tokyo, capital stock: 400 million yen, President: Isao Miyanohara), a company formed by equal investment from Tosoh Corporation and Taiheiyo Cement Corporation, promotes the development of oversea markets for the fluorine-containing methacrylate "Fluororester". Sales of the product are promoted to take advantage of development of a remarkably simplified novel production process, and application to emulsion paints is expected as well as for optical materials. Since the demand for the samples has been increasing smoothly, they are hurrying to put it into large scaled production both for domestic and foreign use.

The fluorinated methacrylate of the company (trifluoroethyl methacrylate monomer) is a product that other companies have prepared up to now by producing trifluoroethanol from chlorotrifluoroethane and making this into the finished product. F-TECH, INC. has succeeded in the production thereof without intermediate production of trifluoroethanol, which has lead to remarkable cost reduction.

The company has also succeeded in reducing the cost to 2000 yen or less per 1 kg at the end of the last year by continuous improvements for the production facilities, this cost on condition of 100 ton scale production per year.

Fluorester is excellent in optical characteristics and oxygen permeability, and is expected to be developed for use in fluorine-type coatings having good compatibility as a copolymer and coatings having good water repellent/oil repellent and contamination proof properties, taking advantage of the relatively small amount of fluorine content, in addition to the application use for optical fibers, contact lenses, photoresists and toners. F-TECH, INC. has promoted the development of markets for this product, mainly domestic, since the start of the sales last year, but demand for samples from foreign countries has been increasing satisfactorily and requests are expected from several tens of companies this year. The company intends to extend the range of application uses for both domestic and foreign markets in view of the large potential of the product, and has a plan to promote sales utilizing the sales promotion ability of its parent companies such as Tosoh Corporation.

F-TECH, INC. (Head office: Chuo-ku, Tokyo, capital stock: 400 million yen, President: Isao Miyanohara) will reinforce its business in custom synthesis, mainly for organic intermediates. They intend to put novel fluorine-derived products into practical use by utilizing their multi-purpose plant for the development of products in Nanyo (Yamaguchi prefecture), scaling up the reactors, eliminating production bottlenecks, and enhancing the performance by about 50% for this year, and will plan new construction of a further series of multi-purpose plants next year. The company is the major maker of trifluoroethanol used for anesthetics, pharmaceuticals and agricultural materials, but they will invest business resources in this new business to develop it into a mainstay of the company.

F-TECH, INC. is a manufacturer of fluorine type organic compounds established with equal investment by Tosoh Corporation and Taiheiyo Cement Corporation in 1975. Last year, they established the technique for mass-production at low cost of the fluorinated methacrylate monomer; trifluoroethyl methacrylate for use as an optical material, and started full scale development of the market for this product. They intend to develop multiple operations including Japan’s first commercial production of trifluoromethyliodide (CF3I), expected as a fire-extinguishing agent to substitute for Halon 1301.

However, the business of custom synthesis mainly for fluorinated products has been expanding earlier. They completed construction of a multi-purpose plant the year before last, and they satisfied its needs by additionally providing small-sized reactors in the plant last year, at present being in full operation already.

Therefore, they intend to proceed to extension of the supply system by 50% by increasing the size of the reactors and automation for the facilities and elimination of production bottlenecks, and are considering the construction of a series of plants in the next year, and intend to positively put business resources here as the business succeeding to trifluoroethanol.

F-TECH, INC. (Head office: Chuo-ku, Tokyo, capital stock: 400 million yen, President: Isao Miyanohara), a company formed by equal investment from Tosoh and Taiheiyo Cement, has established a technique for industrial production of trifluoromethyl iodide (CF3I) first in Japan, which is expected to be a substitute for the fire extinguishing agent Halon 1301 and has begun planning for commercial production. They have developed a technique of directly reacting HF23 and iodine in the presence of a hybrid catalyst for the first time in the world. This spring, they completed a pilot plant in their Nanyo factory, and started shipping of samples. They intend to construct a plant of 30-50 ton scale per year in the latter half of next year after accumulating engineering data till the end of this year.

Halon 1301 has been widely used as an ideal fire-extinguishing agent. However, only the stocks for consumption have now been used, and those only partially, because of total abolishment of specific CFC’s, so that development for substitutes having similar characteristics has been strongly demanded. CF3I doesn’t destroy ozone, and has characteristics similar with Halon 1301, but it is said that only some special chemical manufacturers produce it in the USA, since it has to produced through the complicated process of reacting a metal salt comprising a highly toxic and expensive trifluoroacetic acid or a silver salt thereof with iodine.

F-TECH, INC. is the major company for producing trifluoroethanol used in anesthetics, pharmaceuticals and agricultural materials and has more than a 60% share in the world, and they have now developed first in the world a novel production technique by directly reacting HFC 23 and iodine by an immobilized bed flowing type continuous system by utilizing a special catalyst in which a metal catalyst is carried on activated carbon, and constructed and completed a pilot plant following construction of a bench plant in Nanyo factory this spring.

CF3I is said to cause cardiac sensitization when it is inhaled at a high concentration, but practical realization of a fire extinguishing agent having high performance in unoccupied place such as in engine rooms of air planes and reaction apparatus in plants has been strongly desired.

F-TECH, INC. will accumulate engineering data till the end of this year to meet the requirement for a small amount of samples for test and research, and intends to complete design for the actual plant process, and will start construction of a mass-production plant of 30.50 tons per year, if possible, at the latter half of the next year.

F-TECH, INC. (head office: Chuo-ku, Tokyo, capital stock: 400 million yen, President: Isao Miyanohara) has started development of a worldwide market for fluorinated methacrylate (trifluoroethyl methacrylate monomer). The mass production plan for this chemical was announced at the beginning of this year. It is known for excellent optical characteristics, but its expensive cost hindered its popularization. The price was previously reduced to 5,000 ~ 6,000 yen per 1 kg, a fraction of the present price, but it has now further drastically lowered in cost, to 2000 yen or lower (on the scale of production of hundred kg a year) by improvement for facilities, and development of application uses in various directions has started. In particular, application as a copolymer to emulsion coatings is expected, and approach to foreign countries has been started from Tosoh USA and Tosoh Europe of Tosoh as parent companies in the business bases. Samples have already been shipped to 50 companies, which is hoped to be pivotal in rapid growth to a large-scale product.

F-TECH, INC. is a company founded by equal investment from Tosoh Corporation and Taiheiyo Cement Corporation, and Japan Halon Co. Ltd. as a direct ancestor was known as a first manufacturer in Japan of Halon 1301. The company is, at present, the major company for producing trifluoroethanol used as anesthetics, pharmaceuticals, and agricultural materials, and has captured a 60% share in the world market.

The fluorinated methacrylate "Fluorester" (trade name) for which full scale development of a market is in full scale, required up to now a plurality of long production steps, but the company has extremely shortened the steps, which has led to remarkable cost reduction. Although the products still required 5,000 yen or 6,000 yen per 1 kg for the samples shipped till the former half of this year, they have promoted improvement of the steps and facilities and succeeded in reducing the cost further to about one-half.

According to F-TECH, INC., when the scale of the production in the total amount exceeds 100 kg per year, the company can supply the product at an unprecedented price scale, that is, lower than 2000 yen.

Fluorester has recently been considered promising for use in fluorine type paints (aqueous and emulsion type) because of its good compatibility as a copolymer, and in coating agents and paint modifiers because of its good water repellent, oil repellent and contamination proof properties, taking advantage of its relatively low content of fluorine, in addition to the optical fibers, contact lenses, photoresists and toners planned for development initially.

In addition, F-TECH, INC. intends to establish close co-operation with users in its position as a manufacturer of monomers by positive disclosure of information on physical properties and safety of Fluorester, and they have started the development of the overseas market through Tosoh USA and Tosoh Europe the end of last year.

The company also is extending its consigned synthesis business featuring fluorine-derived products, and also intends to endeavor to make fluorine-containing methacrylate into a large-scaled product in parallel with trifluoroethanol.

F-TECH, INC. (Head office: Chuo-ku, Tokyo, capital stock: 40 million yen, President: Isao Miyanohara) is speeding up growth of new business following its trifluoroethanol production. Recently, they have established techniques for mass production of the fluorinnated methacrylate monomer (trifluoroethyl methacrylate), have started development of the market for this, and in addition completed multi-purpose plants for the production of products to be developed in Nanyo factory (Yamaguchi prefecture), all for putting novel fluorine products into practical use. The company has a plan for increased installation of small-sized reactors also in this year to arrange a system capable of coping with various custom synthesis projects. The sales of the company is about two billion yen now, and it is intended to increase to three billion yen after 4 or 5 years by the production of such new products.

F-TECH, INC. is a manufacturer of fluorine type organic compounds established by equal investment by Tosoh Corporation and Taiheiyo Cement Corporation in 1975, and is the major company for producing trifluoroethanol, used for anesthetics and agricultural materials, and has about a 60% share in the world market.

The company has proceeded with development of relevant products featuring specialized techniques and has now established techniques for the mass-production, which can supply the fluorinated methacrylate monomer (trifluoroethyl methacrylate), expected to be of great use as an optical material, at a price which is a fraction of that of existent products and has started, in full scale, the development of the market for this product.

In addition, they have started to develop new fluorine- derived products, and completed multi-purpose plants in their Nanyo factory last year, and proceeded with extension of custom synthesis business. They have a plan to additionally increase small-sized reactors in the factory to cope with various needs.

F-TECH, INC.’s business constitution relies on trifluoroethanol as major products, but the company has a plan to quickly attain a 50% increase in sales and improvement of profits by adding various products to its entrusted development business in addition to the recently begun commercial production of trifluroethyl methacrylate.

F-TECH, INC. (Head office: Chuo-ku, Tokyo, capital stock: 400 million yen, President: Isao Miyanohara), capitalized jointly by Tosoh Corporation and Taiheiyo Cement Corporation has established techniques for mass-production of the fluorinated methacrylate monomer trifluoroethyl methacrylate for which use as optical material is expected, and has started development of a new market for this on a full scale. They developed a new production process with remarkable simplification of the processes, so that product can be supplied at a fraction of the prices of existent products. They have constructed a system capable of producing several hundred tons a year in their Nanyo factory (Yamaguchi prefecture), and are going to develop worldwide markets with the marketing division of a parent company Tosoh Corporation.

Expectation for the purpose of optical fibers
F-TECH, INC. is the major company for producing trifluoroethanol, used at present as anesthetics and agricultural materials, and has about 60% market share. The company has pursued development of derived products featuring their specialized techniques. Trifluroethyl methacrylate production up to the present required a plurality of steps: producing trifluoroethanol from chlorotrifluoroethane and applying several steps to this product.

The company has succeeded in producing without the intermediate trifluoroethanol production step, leading to remarkable cost reduction. In addition, existent equipment, which has not been used effectively, is applied for mass-production system in the re-organized production system, which enables several hundred tons of production of monomers per year. They have started full-scale sales of this product under the trade name of "Fluorester".

Trifluoroethyl methacrylate is excellent in optical property and oxygen permeability, and it has been known that when the material is used for clad of optical fibers, its specialized characteristic result in great advantages, but expensive cost hinders popularized use. F-TECH, INC. plans to promote sales to relevant markets, it expecting development of various application uses such as improvement of surface characteristics of optical fibers and contact lenses, taking advantages of the water repellency, oil repellency, high compatibility and wide range of ability for co-polymerization.