Tosoh’s decision to hike prices stems from a desire to ensure a stable supply of caustic soda for domestic demand amid the company’s concerns for the viability of its electrolysis operations as worldwide demand for the products of those operations—chlorine derivatives and caustic soda—declines.

The decision comes as Tosoh’s other measures to ensure stable supply confront the increasingly harsh business conditions for the company’s electrolysis operations. To date, those measures have centered on the company’s aggressive marketing of the chlorine derivative products of its electrolysis process, domestically and abroad.

The company also has attempted to improve the profitability of its electrolysis operations and to thus sustain their production levels and stable supply through fixed and other cost reductions, energy savings, and rationalization.

Tosoh will continue to reduce its manufacturing, logistics, and other electrolysis-related costs. But the global decline in demand for caustic soda and chlorine derivates and the uncertain economic outlook compels the company to raise its prices for liquid caustic soda domestically.

Tosoh Corporation is a Japanese chemical company established in 1935 and listed on the First Section of the Tokyo Stock Exchange. It is the parent of the Tosoh Group, which comprises 130 companies worldwide and a multiethnic workforce of over 11,000 people and generated net sales of ¥687.1 billion (US$8.4 billion at the year-end rate of ¥82.19 to the US dollar) in fiscal 2012, ended March 31, 2012.

Tosoh is one of the largest chlor-alkali manufacturers in Asia. The Company supplies the plastic resins and an array of the basic chemicals that support modern life.

Tosoh Corporation