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[August 2007]
H C Starck Sells Battery Business to Toda Kogyo Corp
H C Starck GmbH (Goslar, Germany) and Toda Kogyo Corp (Hiroshima, Japan) have announced that Toda Kogyo has acquired the Battery Products business of H C Starck effective as of 1 August 2007. The parties have agreed not to disclose the transaction value.“Based on our longstanding and fruitful relationship with Toda Kogyo, we believe that Toda Kogyo is an ideal partner for the future development of the Battery Products business,” explained H C Starck Managing Director Dr Heinz Heumüller. “We are convinced that with the support of Toda Kogyo, the business will continue its growth path and work to further improve performance.”
Toshiyuki Toda, President of Toda Kogyo, said: “With the acquisition, Toda Kogyo Corp can avail itself of a global supply network combined with its existing manufacturing facilities in Japan. The battery materials business unit of Japan has two factories, one in Onoda, Yamaguchi, and the other in Kita-Kyusyu, Fukuoka. The latter is producing 600 tons a year, that will be increased more in the near future, of nickel oxides cathode materials for Li-ion batteries, commonly used in PCs and cellular phones and expected to be one of the promising batteries for HEVs. The acquisition also enables Toda Kogyo Corp to add cathode materials for the Ni-HM batteries to its traditional product line. The demand for Ni-MH batteries, currently used for HEVs, is also growing.“
The business relationship between the two companies goes back to 2003 when they started a joint development of a new type of battery cathode material. Since then, H C Starck has supplied Toda Kogyo with precursor materials from its Sarnia plant in Canada, which Toda Kogyo uses in the production of cathode material for the next generation of lithium-ion batteries. Based on strong R&D capabilities and material science know-how, the Battery Products division has developed a leading technology position in battery production. The production site in Sarnia is the only industrial scale production facility for spherical Nickelhydroxide (SNH) in the western world.
www.hcstarck.de
ENDS