Japanese Business Blog - Rudlin Consulting

Mitsui establishes electromagnetic steel sheet processing company for EVs and power plants in Poland

Japanese trading company Mitsui & Co has announced that it will establish an electromagnetic steel sheet processing company, Polskamit Steel in Skarwimiez in southern Poland. Polskamit will process, stock, and inspect electromagnetic steel sheets used in motor cores for electric vehicles such as hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs) and battery electric vehicles (BEVs), as well as transformer cores used in power plants and substations. It is scheduled to start operations in April 2026.

Mitsui first established, in 1993, an electrical steel sheet processing company in the Netherlands and then in the Czech Republic. Mitsui also set up Mitsui High-Tec Poland in 2018, employing around 88 people, providing lamination press processing of in-vehicle motor cores for electric vehicles.

According to US research firm BloombergNEF, Poland is a major producer of lithium-ion batteries, ranking second in the world after China and first in Europe in terms of national battery production capacity in 2022.

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Pernille Rudlin speaking on navigating workplace harassment and purpose at 24th September event in London

Pernille Rudlin will be speaking (in Japanese) on “Navigating Workplace Harassment and Purpose” on 24th September 2024 16:00 in London as part of a free HR seminar with Centre People and Lewis Silkin. You can use the QR code or email address as below to register.

Japanese shipping company NYK to invest in British-Irish sea urchin farming and biodiversity venture

Japanese shipping company NYK is investing in Urchinomics, a British-Irish venture which will feed up starving sea urchins so they can be sold for food – and also support biodiversity.

Kelp forests on the seabed are being eaten up by an overabundance of sea urchins. Kelp forests are “blue” carbon as they absorb and store CO2 from the atmosphere through photosynthesis and they also support marine biodiversity by providing a habitat for small fish and other aquatic life.

The lack of kelp food means that the sea urchins are not edible. Urchinomics will collect them, feed them on other natural food and then use the profits from sales of urchin (known as uni, a delicacy in Japan) to reinvest in collection of urchins but also restoration of the kelp forests.

A new job for the 21st century – urchin rancher.

Unidon photo By Totti – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=68677193

Japanese car companies consolidate into two camps – in the UK too

Recent reports that Mitsubishi Motors is to join the Honda-Nissan alliance show that Japanese car companies are forming two camps – Toyota and Not-Toyota.

According to the Nikkei, Mitsubishi Motors, which is 34% owned by Nissan, will work with Honda and Nissan to finalise the details of their partnership on electric vehicle development, including standardising in-vehicle software that controls cars.

Even before the competitive pressures from China and Tesla in electric vehicles became apparent, what has happened to the Japanese car industry in the UK over the past decade has been an omen of what was to come. Mitsubishi Motors sold off its Nedcar operation in the Netherlands, its only manufacturing plant in Europe, to VDL in 2012. Nine years later it shut down its UK sales company, the Colt Car Company, a joint venture originally with Mitsubishi Corporation. In the same year, Honda shut down its Swindon plant, leading to several other automotive suppliers who were reliant on Honda withdrawing from the UK too. Honda’s European headquarters continues to be based in the UK, however.

Nissan’s commitment to the UK is clear from a recent announcement that it will lead MADE NE (Manufacturing, Automation, Digitalisation, Electrification North East) with local government partners to create open access training facilities in Sunderland, covering education from primary school to apprenticeships, with a particular focus on EV and battery manufacturing.

MADE NE will also support support targeted industrial innovation projects with funding and equipment.

Toyota has two “Lean Management” centres, at its plants in Burnaston, Derbyshire and Deeside in North Wales, open to any non-competitive organisation who wants to develop people and processes in the Toyota Way.

Poland revisited

It’s been just over three years since I last wrote in this column about Poland. Then, the EU was about to freeze funding to Poland because of their violation of the rule of law. I warned in my article that although Poland was clearly very attractive to Japanese companies, with stable economic growth over three decades and a cheap but educated labour force, this was not enough for long term sustainability if legal and state institutions were not stable, independent and transparent.

Now, after his victory in the October 2023 elections, Donald Tusk has become Prime Minister, replacing the former ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party. Tusk has arrested two politicians for abuse of power and has presented the justice reforms needed to unfreeze EU funds.

The number of people employed by around 300 Japanese companies in Poland has continued to grow despite the political and legal instability, to over 60,000, fourth in Europe after the UK, Germany and France. According to a recent JETRO survey*, Poland is seen as the most promising market by Japanese companies in Europe, for the fifth year running. This is a reflection both of its relatively large population and that it is still a developing economy.

The importance of Poland to Europe, both culturally and economically, was brought home to me again on my recent trip to Warsaw and Krakow. Although the largest Japanese employers in Poland are the manufacturers such as Sumitomo Electric Industries, NGK and Toyota, there are substantial numbers working in the services sector. I was there to deliver training to a newly established shared services group for a Japanese electronics company. Shared services has become an increasingly common feature of multinationals in Europe, whereby there are hubs in several countries, supporting all the European operations with logistics, HR, IT and legal services.

I went to Krakow, not for work, but to see the Manggha Museum of Japanese Art and Technology. It is named Manggha because this was the pen name of Felix Jasieński, a 19^th century art connoisseur who collected Japanese artists such as Hiroshige. He donated his collection to the National Museum in Krakow where it was seen by the a young Andrzej Wajda, later to become a famous film director. Wajda later donated money to fund the Manggha Museum, which opened in 1994, supported by the Japanese government.

The JETRO survey also showed that Japanese companies have a strong interest in supporting the rebuilding of Poland’s neighbour, Ukraine. Poland has been a supporter of Ukrainian sovereignty, and for its integration into Europe since the fall of the Soviet Union. Relations between the two countries deteriorated somewhat, however, when PiS came to power in 2015. At the beginning of the Russian invasion, Poland provided strong support to Ukraine but in recent months tensions have flared up again. The hope, both for the EU and Japan must be that these tensions are resolved now Tusk is in power, although no resolution to the Russian invasion is in sight.

*https://www.jetro.go.jp/world/reports/2023/01/9692d660c7fb3d25.html

Top 30 Japanese companies in Poland 2021 – Rudlin Consulting

This article was first published in Japanese in the Teikoku Databank News on 14th February 2024

Photo of Manggha Museum – (Nemuri), Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Sega Sammy to acquire Dutch online gaming company Stakelogic

Japanese gaming company Sega Sammy will acquire Stakelogic B.V. for a rumoured $141m. Headquartered in the Netherlands, Stakelogic has over 550 employees in 7 offices covering over 20 markets worldwide.

Stakelogic has expertise in developing iGaming content and has Game Certifications across 17 territories, developing slot games, live table games and hybrid games which allow players to play roulette, blackjack, baccarat and live game shows online.

Hitachi to sell stake in US air conditioning company Johnson Controls to Bosch

Hitachi has announced a further divestment of its non core businesses with the sale of its 40% stake in the joint venture it has with US company Johnson Controls to Bosch. Johnson Controls-Hitachi Air Conditioning has multiple operations in the EMEA region, including in Spain, UK, Bulgaria, France, Czech Republic, Hungary, Italy, Poland, Russia, Slovakia, Turkey and Ukraine.

Its commercial air conditioning business in Japan will be folded into Hitachi’s home appliance business. The home air conditioning production plant in Tochigi, Japan, will be transferred to Bosch.

Yazaki acquires German JuHa Group

Japanese automotive parts supplier Yazaki has acquired the German mould maker Junker Halverscheid group via its Yazaki EMEA N.V. subsidiary.

The family-owned company JuHa, is a manufacturer of tools and moulds for plastics processing as well as a producer of plastic parts for the automotive industry. It has around 200 employees in Lüdenscheid and has been a supplier to Yazaki EMEA for decades.

Yazaki is also a family owned, privately held company, and is the third largest Japanese employer in the EMEA region, with over 45,000 employees. It has largely grown organically overseas rather than through acquisition.

Sekisui House UK to go into liquidation

Sekisui House UK, which was established in 2018, is to go into liquidation. The company had invested in Urban Splash House Holdings and also made a loan to one of the companies in the group, Port Loop. Seven of the companies in the Urban Splash group went into liquidation in 2022 including Urban Splash House Holdings Ltd, the main development business Urban Splash House Ltd, the modular manufacturing business Urban Splash Modular Ltd, and a development vehicle for the Port Loop development, Port Loop (Subco 1) Ltd.

Urban Splash was hit by the under-use of its factory, which led to losses piling up with the problems compounded by design issues which resulted in defects in the homes it produced.

It seems Sekisui refused to bail the company out once a shortfall was identified.

Kyokuyo acquires stakes in European seafood companies

Tokyo-listed seafood company Kyokuyo has bought a majority interest in Northseafood Holland as part of its strategy to establish an overseas processing presence.

Its Kyokuyo Europe subsidiary, also Netherlands based, will acquire a majority stake in NSF Holding, the parent company of NS Holland.

Kyokuyo also took a majority stake in Turkey’s Kocaman Fisheries Export and Import Trade in January.

There have been quite a few acquisitions by Japanese companies of European seafood processors in recent years – for example Maruha Nichiro, Nippon Suisan and Marubeni.