News

We are pleased to inform you that our metals company, Mitsubishi Materials Corporation (President: Hiroshi Yao, Capital: 119.4 billion yen) has established a new department for E-Scrap recycling business within Mitsubishi Materials U.S.A. Corporation's Los Angeles (California) Head Office, set to start operations from July 1, 2014. The objective of this new establishment is to strengthen collection system for E-Scrap originated from crushed circuit boards among waste appliances and waste electronic equipment, which is the main raw material for the recycling business in copper smelting.

As global awareness of environmental issues has grown in recent years, as seen in the example of Europe's Waste of Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) Directive, the recycling rate of waste appliances and waste electronic equipment is anticipated to grow in the future. Approaching urban mines centered on waste appliances and waste electronic equipment has become increasingly important, in order to make effective use of limited resources and protect global environment.

As a metals company, we are actively addressing the establishment of a recycling-oriented society which recovers and recycles valuable metals, by processing E-Scrap. Therefore, in recent years, we have expanded the volume received from overseas, mainly from Europe and the United States, as well as from domestic market in Japan.
Especially in North America, there are many recycling companies performing from collection of waste circuit boards to crushing and sorting. In addition, home appliances and electronic equipment manufacturers, as well as various local municipalities including state governments are also actively promoting material recycling. We recognize that North American market is a further promising market, as we keep expanding the volume of E-Scrap collected there. It is also worth noting that our company's imports of E-Scrap from North America stayed firm, as they increased to approximately 12,000 tons in FY2012 and approximately 28,000 tons in FY2013.
In order to provide a sustainable and stable collection of E-Scrap from North America, as well as to promptly respond to future increase of the collected volume, we have decided to establish a base for business development in the United States which would be indispensable to this end. Therefore, as this time, we have opened a new department for E-Scrap recycling business within our consolidated subsidiary, Mitsubishi Materials U.S.A. Corporation, covering almost 30 years of corporate activity in the United States.

Under Mitsubishi Materials Group's corporate philosophy of “for people, society and the Earth,” we aim to become “world's No.1 corporate group in supporting a recycling-oriented society by creating materials innovative for the planet, based on our unique technologies,“ as part of its long-term management policy toward the early 2020's.
Under Materials Premium 2016 medium-term management plan created to achieve these objectives, the Company is implementing a company-wide growth strategy of “Fortifying the foundation for growth,“ “Strengthening global competitiveness,“ and “Pursuing a recycling-based business model.“ The Company will continue to contribute to the development of a sustainable society by pursuing a recycling-based business model that optimizes the planet's limited resources, through further processing of E-Scrap. In this way, we aim to rank world's No.1 metals company in processing volume of E-Scrap.

Overview of Newly Established Department for Recycling of E-Scrap

Department

Recycling Business Department

Location

11250 Slater Ave., Fountain Valley, CA 92708 U. S. A.

Operation Starting

July 1, 2014 (Scheduled)

Number of Resident Employees

1 (Scheduled)

Business Fields

Market research on recycling businesses
Coordination business with local recycling business operators

【References】 Overview of Mitsubishi Materials Corporation (United States)

Company Name in English

Mitsubishi Materials U.S.A. Corporation

Location

11250 Slater Ave., Fountain Valley, CA 92708 U. S. A.

Established

1984

Investment ratio

Mitsubishi Materials U.S.A. Corporation100%

Representative

Motoharu Yamamoto

Business Field

Sales of cemented carbide tools and fabricated metal products

Number of Employees

170 (as of April 2014)