[Company analysis] Tokai Carbon Co., Ltd. (東海カーボン)

「Tokai Carbon Co., Ltd. (東海カーボン)」is a company specializing in carbon products. They can handle electrical discharge machining electrodes and graphite materials used in high temperature and mechanical application fields such as「Showa Denko K.K.(昭和電工)」. This company has manufacturing plants in several locations in Japan and has more than 24 subsidiaries and 6 affiliated companies worldwide. The number of consolidated employees is approximately 2,944.

 

1. Company Profile

2. Summary and Features

3. Major Business

4. Financial Information

 

 

 

1. Company Profile

 

※Unit is JPY million, as of 2019

Company name	Tokai Carbon Co., Ltd.
Company name (Japanese)	東海カーボン
Date of establishment	1918
Headquarters location	〒107-8636 東京都港区北青山1-2-3　青山ビル
Capital	20,436
Consolidated sales	231,302
Consolidated operating profit	75,284
Consolidated total assets	317,084
Consolidated capital	198,900
Capital adequacy ratio	62.7%
Consolidated number of employees	2,944

 

 

 

2. Summary and Features

 
「Tokai Carbon」is a company specializing in electrode manufacturing, which was founded in 1918 with the purpose of production domesticalization of high quality graphite electrodes in Japan. At that time, in addition to electrodes for electric steelmaking, they also manufactured electrodes for carbide. Since 1986, this company has continued to expand our range of applications, such as by developing fine carbon-related products that are essential for the production of semiconductors and solar panels, and eventually grew into one of the world's leading manufacturers of carbon materials.

In fact, there are two types of steel manufacturing methods. One is the "blast furnace" method of making iron from iron ore and coal, and the other is the "electric furnace" method of melting existing iron with electricity. The graphite electrodes handled by「Tokai Carbon」are the core elements of the latter "electric furnace". Comparatively, the "blast furnace" method was common in the past, but now,  switching to the "electric furnace" is steadily progressing.

Unlike the blast furnace method, the electric furnace method does not use iron ore as a raw material, so the effect on the global environment is relatively small. Especially in China, where about half of the world's steel is produced, are seems to be interested in this electric furnace system. So there is a room for growth in the future. 「Tokai Carbon」has the fifth largest market share in the graphite electrode market, by producing about 10% of the total world production.

In addtion, this company has a variation of carbon related products such as "carbon black" used as a reinforcing material for rubber, "graphite electrode" used for recycling iron scrap, "fine carbon" used for semiconductor industry manufacturing equipment, "friction material" used for motorcycle brake pads, "anode material" used for lithium-ion batteries. And「Tokai Carbon」has very high market shares in each business. 

 

 

 

3. Major Business

 

■ Carbon black
For the tayer, rubber and printing industries

■ Graphite electrode
For the steel industry

■ Fine carbon
For photovoltaic / semiconductor industry

■ Friction material
For motorcycles and construction machinery

■ Negative electrode material
For lithium-ion battery industry

■ Industrial furnaces and related products
Mainly for glass industry

 

 

 

4. Financial information

 

※Unit is JPY million

		2016	2017	2018
Consolidated sales		88,580	106,252	231,302
Consolidated operating profit		1,131	182,972	75,284
Consolidated total assets		158,824	182,972	317,084
Consolidated net assets		112,989	126,599	198,900
Breakdown of sales	Carbon black	37,764	47,828	102,075
	Graphite electrode	20,714	23,610	76,926
	Fine carbon	12,925	14,447	25,403
	Furnace and related products	5,243	6,823	11,371
	Others	11,932	13,542	15,525