[Company analysis] Nippon Light Metal Co., Ltd (日本軽金属ホールディングス)

「Nippon Light Metal Co., Ltd (日本軽金属ホールディングス)」is the seventh largest non-ferrous metal industry in Japan and they have core business of manufacturing and selling aluminum and chemical products. This company is specialized in "braking device" and they have world class technology in weight lightening for hybrid vehicles. They also have a business alliance with Canada's global aluminum manufacturing company, 「Rio Tinto Alcan」. The number of consolidated employees is approximately 13,335.

 

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	Nippon Light Metal Co., Ltd
Company name (Japanese)	日本軽金属ホールディングス
Date of establishment	Monday, October 1, 2012
Headquarters location	〒100-6312 東京都品川区東品川二丁目2番20号
Capital	46,525
Consolidated sales	500,451
Consolidated operating profit	30,052
Consolidated total assets	481,303
Consolidated capital	202,735
Capital adequacy ratio	42.1%
Consolidated number of employees	13,335

 

 

 

2. Summary and Features

 
In 1939, 「Furukawa Electric Co., Ltd.(古河電気工業)」and「Tokyo Electric Light(東京電燈)」started joint business about the aluminum refining, and for this,「Nihon Light Metal」was established. In the 1980s, the business situation became worsened and they eventually fell into a temporary business crisis due to the deterioration of the aluminum market. On that time, the crisis was overcomed by the hit of household products such as manual ice cream making machines using aluminum.

Today's「Nihon Light Metal」is the only integrated aluminum manufacturing company in Japan. They can handle a variety of products, from raw aluminum to processed products. Their business area covers all processes from material research to development, manufacturing and sales. The average purity of the aluminum ingot processed by the electrolytic blast furnace owned by them is 99.94%, and the maximum purity can be raised to 99.9999%, which is said to be the world's highest level for primary electrolytic aluminum. 

Currently, this company has hydroelectric power plants in Shizuoka and Yamanashi prefecture and they are reducing costs by using this in-house power generation. As a result,「Nihon Light Metal」were able to continue their business without losing price competitiveness, even though other Japanese aluminum smelting companies withdrew their businesses one after another. However, due to the aging of facilities, this company decided to withdraw refining business as of the end of March 2014. 

At present,「Nihon Light Metal」has good reputation on reducing the weight of parts. In particular,"light brake devices" are highly evaluated worldwide. They have a high market share in the brake parts installed in hybrid vehicles. Also, as a business diversification strategy, since 1984 this company started full-scale production and sales of chemical products. In addition to traditional aluminum products, they can manufacture chemical products such as aluminum oxide and aluminum hydroxide.

 

 

 

3. Major Business

 

■ Chemical business

■ Metal alloy business

■ Industrial parts business 

■ Rolled products business

■ Capacitor foil business 

■ Heat exchanger business

 

 

 

4. Financial information

 

※Unit is JPY million

		2016	2017	2018
Consolidated sales		448,381	481,439	500,451
Consolidated operating profit		30,225	29,893	30,052
Consolidated total assets		448,623	467,300	481,303
Consolidated net assets		173,624	189,322	202,735
Breakdown of sales	Aluminium・Chemicals・Gold ingot	101,840	111,100	117,008
	Rolled products	98,165	106,955	107,835
	Processed products	154,684	169,019	180,259
	Foil, Powder products	93,692	94,365	95,349