Dominique Numakura's Newsletter from Japan

Green Procurement.Several leading electronics companies in Japan such as Sony, Matsushita, Canon, etc. have been announcing "Green Procurement" policies for the environmental protection. They will eliminate the use of the six hazardous materials, Pb, Cd, Hg, Cr (VI), PBB and PBDE and the other material materials which include these six elements and compounds according to EU’s RoHS requirements (The Restriction of the use of certain Hazardous Substances) effective July, 2006. Certainly, they will ask vendors to supply lead-free- soldering and halogen-free printed circuit boards and components. The companies will conduct serious audits for the vendors to investigate the whole process of the vendors. It could be cost-up factor for their products, from a short term stand point. However, the electronics companies believe the policy will contribute to their business significantly from the long-term stand-point. They are planning to complete the target much earlier than the dead line. They will cover the cost by using other ideas to be competitive against the low cost competitors in the other Asian countries. The original requirement came from EU. However, there are not many European companies who are ready to satisfy the requirement. Can European manufacturers survive against Japanese competitors? How about the American companies?Dominique NumakuraHeadline News,Pioneer (PDP manufacturer) Started the operation of the 3rd PDP manufacturing line for the flat panel TV. The new total capacity is 250 thousand panels per year. But the company needs more capacity and it is planning the 4th line.Uyemura Industry (Plating chemical supplier for PWB process) Will invest one billion Yen this year. About half of that investment will be consumed for the "refreshing" of the main plant in Maita.MEC (Major chemical supplier for PWB process) Will complete the construction of the new plant in China by the end of the year. It was delayed by the effect of SARS.OHT (PWB inspection machine manufacturer) Will invest 400 million Yen for new head office and main plant. It will move to the new office this autumn.YAMAHA Fine Tech (equipment manufacturer) Rolled out the new electrical tester "Micro-Prober M504" for high-density flexible circuits. It is capable for 30 micron-pitch pads without serious damages.Shinko Electric (Major IC packaging material supplier) Increased the forecast of the year to 127 billion Yen. Packaging materials have been booming.Sumitomo Chemical (Major chemical company) Developed a new blue light source material for the next generation organic LFD. Sumitomo will develop all color sources by 2005.Epson (Major electronics company) Developed a new recycle technology for the waste-water of semiconductor manufacturing process. The new system recovers high purity CaF2 from the waste.Mitsubishi Shindo (Copper product manufacturer) Has been considering an alliance to expand the adhesiveless laminate business for the booming flexible circuit industry.Hitachi Global Storage (Major disc drive manufacturer) Will introduce the new 1" micro drive series, which has 1, 2 and 4 GB capacity. The drive is compatible with the compact flash memory.Sharp Unveiled the smallest CCD camera module with one-mega pixels. The module size is 13.5 x 11 x 9.7 mm.Fujitsu (Major semiconductor manufacturer) Will consolidate the domestic assembling process semiconductors with the new manufacturing company, Fujitsu Integrated Micro Technology.Todaka Seisakusho (Equipment manufacturer) Developed high-accuracy measurement equipment for the micro-solder balls. The new equipment has a higher accuracy of +/- 1 micron.Ricoh (Major camera and electronics manufacturer) Held "The Green Procurement Fair 2003" with 30 major vendors to complete the RoHS target of EU (the Restriction of the use of certain Hazardous Substances) by 2005.Canon (Major electronics company) Has sent a notice of audits to its three thousand vendors for the environmental control of the materials according to the EU’s RoHS requirement. All original news items were written in Japanese. Volunteers are choosing the topics and translating to English for free delivery. We are not responsible for the accuracy of the news. Quick news is the first priority of the headlines, therefore, we can not eliminate all of the mistakes in the translations.