Nihon Seiko to Establish Better Cost Structure for Antimony Trioxide Output

Japanese largest antimony trioxide maker, Nihon Seiko establishes continuous operation at Nakase refinery in Hyogo in fiscal 2008 ending March 2009, which is one year ahead of original schedule. The firm finishes the improvement of bottlenecking packaging process in fiscal 2008 while the firm already finished the continuous process for the converter. The firm targets continuous process and lower cost for the antimony production under the 3-year plan ending fiscal 2009. The firm tries to improve the productivity through the continuous operation along with better energy efficiency. The material is antimony ingot, supply of which China represents more than 80% in the world. China tries to secure the domestic requirement by regulating the export while the country encourages antimony trioxide export. Nihon Seiko tries to keep the competitiveness with Chinese materials by shipping the Chinese OEM products to Southeast Asia. The firm also tries to improve the cost structure for the Japanese operation for better competitiveness.