SDK Starts Shipments of BMC for TOYOTA’s Hybrid Vehicles in China

August 05, 2019
Showa Denko K.K.

Showa Denko (SDK) (TOKYO: 4004) has started supplying bulk molding compound (BMC) to Toyota Motor Corporation (TOYOTA) as sealing material for generator motors used in TOYOTA COROLLA HYBRID and TOYOTA LEVIN HYBRID recently launched in China. The BMC material, produced by Shanghai Showa Highpolymer Co., Ltd, is being shipped to Toyota Motor (Changshu) Auto Parts Co., Ltd.

SDK’s BMC has such characteristics as high heat conductivity, insulation properties, heat resistance, fluidity, dimensional stability and chemical resistance. The material has been used as sealing material for generator motors for hybrid vehicles (HVs), such as TOYOTA’s PRIUS. This time, TOYOTA decided to develop and produce electric-vehicle power trains in China on the occasion of the introduction of two new HV models for the Chinese market. In response to this new policy, Shanghai Showa Highpolymer started producing BMC for HVs for the first time since its foundation in 2010, and supplying the material to Toyota Motor (Changshu) Auto Parts. The HV market in China is expected to expand in line with the government’s tightening of environmental protection.

There is an increasing need in the world for improving fuel efficiency of cars and reducing exhaust gas as a means to prevent air pollution and cut greenhouse gas emissions. This is encouraging consumers to take a keen interest in ecological cars. The Chinese government introduced this year a new environmental regulation, obliging car makers to produce a certain number of new energy vehicles (NEVs). There is a move to spread the use of HVs as fuel-efficient cars for environmental protection. Thus, the HV market is expected to grow further.

The Showa Denko Group’s vision is to make itself a group of “individualized businesses” with profitability and stability maintained at high levels over a long period. Under its medium-term business plan “The TOP 2021,” SDK aims to expand its Functional Chemicals business, including BMC, into an “individualized business” by anticipating changes in society/market and providing products/services with high social value.