Message from the President

Thank you for your continued support of Uyemura.

I would now like to make a few comments about our operating environment before reporting on Uyemura’s results for the 96th fiscal term (April 1, 2023 – March 31, 2024).

During the fiscal year, the Japanese economy continued a moderate recovery path towards normalized social and economic activities as the Japanese government downgraded COVID-19 to a Category 5 infectious disease. Nevertheless, the outlook remained uncertain due to the prolonged situation in Russia and Ukraine, the worsening situation in the Middle East, soaring global resources prices, and rising prices caused by the depreciation of the yen.

In the electronic device market, which is the Uyemura Group’s main market area, the demand of our products for automobiles remained firm backed by the recovery of production volume and the widespread availability of electric vehicles. However, the demand for PCs and smartphones dropped in addition to slowing growth of the data center market. Accordingly, the electronic device market environment as a whole became tough.

Sales for chemicals used in car electronics applications and for surface finishing machinery used for the production of semiconductors and electronic components remained firm. In the core category of chemicals for package PWBs, there were capital investment restraints in the server market for data centers and inventory adjustments made for the lower sales volume of PCs and smartphones. As a result, consolidated sales and operating profit for the current fiscal year were lower than those of the previous fiscal year.

The outlook for the Japanese economy is expected to remain unclear because of the increasing number of conflicts worldwide, slowing economic growth in Europe and North America due to inflation and other reasons.

In the electronic device market, which is a core market sector for the Group, we expect more growth in the demand for components used in car electronics for applications like electric vehicles and autonomous driving systems. Furthermore, demand involving data centers will probably start recovering soon because of the large volume of capital expenditures in this sector along with the growing use of AI.

To achieve our goal of consistent growth in the 21st century, we will continue to use the collective strengths of our group for building a framework that can quickly adapt to changes in our business climate. We must be prepared to act with flexibility to unexpected events too. Accomplishing our goal will also require placing priority on innovation at the factory level. We ask for your continued support. Thank you.

We ask for your continued support. Thank you.

June 2024