Sumitomo Chemical to Build IT-related Materials Base in Poland.

Tokyo, Japan, Aug 14, 2006 - (JCN) - Sumitomo Chemical has announced plans to establish an IT-related materials base, Sumika Electronic Materials Poland Sp. Z o.o. in Torun, Poland, following major customer Sharp, who has announced plans to open a new factory in the same city.

The new subsidiary will have the capability to produce 500,000 polarizing films a month and 5,000 tons of diffusers, both designed for liquid crystals, scheduled to start operations in summer 2007. The company will expand capacity for both polarizing film and light diffusion panels as necessary to meet demand from the major LCD panel manufacturers as they expand their businesses.

Sumitomo has positioned IT-related materials as one of its major areas of focus, centering on materials for liquid crystal displays (LCDs), and has been promoting an aggressive global expansion of its production bases. The company presently has LCD-related materials facilities in Japan, Korea, Taiwan and China, with a particular focus on polarizing film.

The company believe a European opertions base of operations will further enhance ability to provide LCD-related materials promptly to panel manufacturers with operations in Europe and offer a broader range of flexible services to its customers.

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