New Summit Fertilizer (Foshan) plant begins operation in China

Summit Fertilizer (Foshan) Co., Ltd. (Representative: Guo Hanguang; Head Office: Foshan City, Guangdong Province, Republic of China; Capital: 180 million yuan), in which Sumitomo Corporation (Chuo-ku, Tokyo; President and CEO: Susumu Kato) and Sumitomo Corporation (China) Holding Ltd. hold a 50% stake, have established a new chemical compound fertilizer plant in Foshan City. More than 200 people, including the relevant parties of both stakeholders, major customers, and regional government officials, attended the opening ceremony held on November 7.  

Sumitomo Corporation and Sumitomo Corporation (China) Holding Ltd. established Summit Fertilizer (Qingdao) Co., Ltd. (Pingdu, Qingdao, Republic of China) in 2004 jointly with Qingdao Soda Ash Industrial Co., Ltd. (Shanghai-listed), which had a business relationship with the Sumitomo Corporation Group in fertilizers, etc., and have since conducted manufacturing and sales of chemical compound fertilizers in China leading to annual production of 200,000 tons. In response to the recent increasing demand for fertilizers in China, Summit Fertilizer (Foshan) was established at the end of 2008 with the same capital structure with the aim of developing markets in southern China. The new plant has a production capacity of 200,000 tons per year and has been implementing trial production since summer.

The fertilizers that are produced in the Qingdao and Foshan plants are advanced chemical compound fertilizers that have an immediate effect and a long-time fertilizer effect and target almost all kinds of agricultural products, including grains, fruit trees and vegetables, and therefore, their sales continue to increase year after year. Since the Sumitomo Corporation Group's production of chemical compound fertilizers in China has now achieved annual production capacity of 400,000 tons, we aim to expand the sales throughout the country and also export selected products to Southeast Asia.

In China, a country with an enormous population and which is seeing major changes in eating habits, there is now an urgent need to increase the production of agricultural products, and it is expected that the need for chemical compound fertilizers, which is currently 30 million tons per year, will continue to increase by 1 million tons every year. Based on the know-how and networks that have been cultivated through the fertilizer business in five countries, Sumitomo Corporation will work solidly to develop the fertilizer business in China while aiming to establish a manufacturing and sales system capable of handling 1 million tons per year by 2020 through the establishment of the third and fourth manufacturing bases.