About Shimadzu

Today's turbo-molecular pumps create an ultrahigh vacuum via the high-speed rotation of aluminum vanes that "hit" gas molecules, such as nitrogen and hydrogen. The turbo-molecular pump market is expanding primarily in the area of semiconductor manufacturing equipment, which requires a high-purity vacuum environment. Currently, the global market for these pumps is approximately 50 billion yen and the Japanese market is approximately 20 billion yen. Demand for pumps with higher exhaust performance is increasing due to miniaturization of semiconductor manufacturing processes. Including demand for manufacturing equipment of other products such as flat panel displays and solar batteries, overall demand in 2007 is expected to increase more than 10% over 2006.

Shimadzu Corporation is currently the world’s third largest turbo-molecular pump manufacturer and sales reached approximately 6.2 billion yen in fiscal year 2006. Since demand for the pumps is increasing significantly, Shimadzu is positioning turbo-molecular pumps as a major growth product and plans to expand its share of this business. In April this year, Shimadzu began construction of a new plant designed to manufacture turbo-molecular pumps on site, at its Sanjo headquarters in Japan. Scheduled to be completed by the end of 2007, all manufacturing processes, including ultra-precision machining, assembly, and inspection, can be performed at this new plant. The transfer of business from Mitsubishi is one of a number of measures that are based on this business strategy.

Mitsubishi Heavy Industries entered the turbo-molecular pump market in 1986 and operated its business from a plant in Hiroshima. Mitsubishi recorded sales of approximately 3 billion yen in fiscal year 2006. Mitsubishi and Shimadzu business interests are well matched, as Mitsubishi is narrowing down and concentrating its fields of business, while Shimadzu is expanding its turbo-molecular pump business; hence, their agreement to the transfer of business.

Shimadzu produces mainly magnetic-bearing type turbo-molecular pumps with exhaust velocities ranging from 190 to 4,200 L/S. Thanks to the transfer of business from Mitsubishi, Shimadzu's pumps lineup will now include both large-capacity magnetic-bearing models (exhaust velocity of 6,000 L/S) and pivot-bearing models, strong points of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries products, and make Shimadzu the world’s second largest turbo-molecular pump manufacturer. Moving forward, Shimadzu will expand its business identity, improve production efficiency through expansion of scale, improve profitability and capacity of technology development, and increase its market share. These steps are necessary in order to accelerate the growth of its turbo-molecular pump business and ultimately become the world’s leading manufacturer of turbo-molecular pumps.

By fiscal year 2009, after the transfer of business is completed, Shimadzu aims to reach 15 billion yen in turbo-molecular pump sales, more than double the 6.2 billion yen figure for fiscal year 2006.