Charlotte Plant with new Hipore鈩 coating line under construction

This partnership allows Asahi Kasei to mitigate the risk of market fluctuations and effectively utilize resources by maintaining high rates of operation. Toyota Tsusho will benefit from a stable supply of LIB separator manufactured at the Charlotte plant as it promotes the establishment of an automotive battery supply chain in North America.

By combining Asahi Kasei's strengths in functional materials and Toyota Tsusho's expertise in mobility, the partnership will accelerate the adoption of high-quality wet-process separator in the North American battery market and facilitate the manufacture of higher-performance electric vehicles.

"This alliance fits perfectly with Asahi Kasei's global growth strategy to build and strengthen a supply chain in North America with our partners and to capture medium- to long-term growth opportunities in the electrified vehicle market," said Ryu Taniguchi, Lead Executive Officer of Asahi Kasei and responsible for the company's separator business. "As a supplier of high-quality LIB separator, in partnership with Toyota Tsusho we will build an ecosystem that supports electrification in North America and leads the way to a carbon-neutral future."

Kazuyuki Urata, COO of Toyota Tsusho's Circular Economy Division, added, "This collaboration with Asahi Kasei is an important step toward the acceleration of electrification in North America and the realization of a sustainable mobility society. Toyota Tsusho will leverage its global network and expertise in the mobility field to build a highly reliable automotive LIB supply chain, thereby creating a foundation to support the spread of electrified vehicles and the reduction of their environmental impact."

To support growing demand in North America, Asahi Kasei is currently advancing plans to establish a battery separator facility in Canada, as announced in May 2024. Asahi Kasei's separator business is positioned for Growth Potential in its medium-term management plan, with a focus on expanding Hipore鈩 wet-process separator in North America. Developing the Canadian facility alongside its U.S. plants will allow the company to continue building its presence within the growing battery ecosystem in North America.

Crown "Sport"

Planic, whose shareholders are Toyota Tsusho and Kojima Sangyo Co., Ltd. (a Kojima Industries Corporation Group company), is one of the largest^*1 recycled plastic manufacturing companies in Japan. The raw materials for the manufacture of recycled plastic used by Planic are collected from Toyota Tsusho Group company TOYOTA METAL CO., LTD.^*2, which is engaged in the automotive recycling business, as well as from ASR recycling facilities and home appliance recycling plants throughout Japan.

As it is difficult to sort collected plastics that include ASR-derived plastics by material, it is hard to conduct Car to Car recycling, which requires high quality, so the plastics have mainly been incinerated (thermal recycling). Amid these circumstances, Planic has become the first company in Japan to introduce advanced gravity separation technology and equipment, which has been put to practical use in Europe, enabling the manufacture of high-quality recycled plastic and Car to Car recycling. This has become a major strength of the company.

Radius, headquartered in Portland, Oregon, is one of North America's leading* recycling companies, operating an extensive network of over 100 locations, including automobile dismantling and metals recycling facilities throughout the United States, Canada and Puerto Rico along with an electric arc furnace steel mill in Oregon. Using this network, Radius excels in acquiring, processing and recycling ferrous and nonferrous metals, providing a stable supply of high-quality recycled materials through advanced processing and sorting technologies to customers across the U.S. and throughout the world.

For over half a century, Toyota Tsusho has been committed to building a "recycling-based society" through the recycling of metal scrap and the resource recovery of end-of-life vehicles. Through the combination of Radius' strengths and Toyota Tsusho's capabilities in building a closed-loop supply chain centered on recycled materials, the transaction will strengthen the supply of high-quality recycled materials in North America and promote decarbonization in global manufacturing industries with the addition of Radius' innovative manufacturing processes.

By promoting resource circulation businesses globally, Toyota Tsusho is accelerating its efforts to achieve carbon neutrality and pass on a better global environment to the children of the future.

* The company processed approximately 4.5 million tons of ferrous recycled products, and approximately 0.3 million tons of non-ferrous recycled products including 660,000 units of end-of-life vehicles, 3.8 million used parts, and approximately 500,000 tons of finished steel products (FY2024).

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Toyota Tsusho America Completes Acquisition of Radius Recycling (U.S. local time July 10: Release by Toyota Tsusho America)

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