Furuya Metal Has Become the First Japanese Precious Metal Company to Establish a Joint Venture with Anglo Platinum Marketing Limited, a Major PGM Producer in South Africa

TOKYO, Jul 27, 2020 - (JCN Newswire) - Furuya Metal Co., Ltd. (Head office: Toshima-ku, Tokyo;President: Takahito Furuya) has established a new company named "Furuya Eco-Front Technology"on May 27 2020, which will handle environmental businesses that capitalize on low-temperature active catalysts (hereafter referred to as "FT-eco catalysts"), and that on July 1 it signed an agreement to form a joint venture with Anglo Platinum Marketing Limited (Head office: London, the United Kingdom, hereafter referred to as "APML"), a subsidiary of Anglo American Plc. APML, which appreciates Furuya Metal's environmental businesses, is providing 40% of the capital for the new joint venture. This is the first time a major mining company in South Africa where accounts for 70% of the global platinum production, has formed a joint venture with a Japanese precious metal company.

In 2017, Furuya Metal established a mass-production system for FT-eco catalysts that resolves volatile organic compounds (VOCs), which are harmful to humans and cause allergies and offensive odors, as well as ethylene, which accelerates the decay of plants, and has been actively promoting these catalysts.

As urban areas have developed economically in China and Southeast Asian countries, as well as Japan, people are continuously flowing into these areas, which creates food safety issues and increases the need for reducing food waste and improving public hygiene. In order to reduce the food waste due to spoilage and to improve people's health by preventing odor, inhibiting molds, and taking the advantage of the antimicrobial effect, Furuya Metal has recently established a new company. Furuya Metal is aiming to consolidate its business resource related to FT-eco catalyst, expand its distribution channels further, including overseas markets, and promote technology development through a newly formed subsidiary.

Press release (PDF): http://www.acnnewswire.com/clientreports/598/202007.pdf

About FT-eco catalysts

FT-eco catalysts are catalysts in which nanoparticles of precious metals such as platinum are carried in a special ceramic carrier. These catalysts can efficiently resolves VOCs and ethylene within a temperature range between 0 degrees and 30 degrees Celsius (room temperature) and exhibit a high level of catalytic effect when simply placed within the target space. Furthermore, since they almost never need to be replaced, cost reduction and energy saving can be expected. Therefore, it is projected that these catalysts will be utilized by makers of home appliances, such as air cleaners and refrigerators, retails stores that need to maintain the freshness of fruits, vegetables, flowers, and plants, and in logistics applications such as cold chains.

FT-eco catalysts are next-generation, energy-saving, environment-friendly catalysts that, because they work at low temperatures, can be expected to reduce energy consumption, thereby reducing CO2 emissions, and that have the potential of contributing to food waste reduction by maintaining freshness.

Furuya Metal Group specializes in PGM with particularly excellent properties among precious metals, and develops and manufactures products for a wide range of fields, including electronics, optical glass, clean energy, precious metal resource reutilization, environment, and medicine. The company was selected as one of the Global Niche Top Companies Selection 100 by Japan's Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) in the program's first year (2014) and again in its second year (2020). We plans to continue capitalizing on its unique technologies to help resolve social issues.

Overview of the new company
- Company name: Furuya Eco-Front Technology Co., Ltd.
- Head office location: MSB-21 Minami Otsuka Bldg., 2-37-5 Minami Otsuka, Toshima-ku, Tokyo
- President: Hideki Kuwabara (Furuya Metal Co., Ltd. director), Wei Chen
- Established: May 27, 2020
- Capital: 250 million yen
- Capital ratio: Furuya Metal Co., Ltd. 60%;Anglo Platinum Marketing Ltd. 40%
- Business description: Development, manufacture, sales, and export of freshness-maintaining, mold-inhibiting, and antimicrobial environmental products that utilize low-temperature active catalysts

Product description video: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCGZa2eorg4ts1FHxxOOGvPg

[Overview of Furuya Metal Co., Ltd.]

Furuya Metal manufactures industrial-use precious metal products utilizing precious metals with high scarcity value included among platinum group metals (PGM) such as platinum (Pt), iridium (Ir) and ruthenium (Ru). Due to the extreme difficulty in processing these precious metals, the number of industrial-use precious metal manufacturers specializing in PGM is limited, even on a worldwide level. Industrial-use precious metals centered on PGM, can be considered as materials with a vital role in supporting advancements in the fields of electronics, optical glass, clean energy, environment and medicine because of their excellent characteristics such as heat resistance, chemical stability and good electrical conductivity.

The Company specializes in PGM possessing particularly excellent properties among precious metals, and manufactures and sells industrial-use precious metal products such as crucibles (heat-resistant containers), thin film materials, thermocouples (thermometers), and compounds, and is also engaged in recycling businesses, such as refining and recovering rare precious metals in order to most effectively utilize them.

Headquarters: MSB-21 Minami Otsuka Bldg., 2-37-5 Minami Otsuka, Toshima-ku, Tokyo
Representative: Takahito Furuya, President
Founded: March 1951
Incorporated: August 22, 1968
Capital: 5,445 million yen
Listed exchange: JASDAQ Standard (Securities code: 7826)
Employees: 312 (as of June 30, 2019)
Sales: 21,163 million yen (as of June 30, 2019)
Business description: Manufacture and sales of industrial-use precious metal products such as iridium and platinum, and thermosensors. Sales of electronic materials and semiconductor-related products. Manufacture and sales of thin film components.
Website: http://www.furuyametals.co.jp/

Press inquiries
Furuya Metal Co., Ltd. Planning Group of Metal Business Office
Naonori Odaka
E-Mail: [e-mail]



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