ICHITAN CO., LTD. Business report FY2006

Business Highlights

Financial overview
In Million yen FY2006 FY 2005 Rate of change (%) Factors
Overall
Sales 10,969 10,417 5.3 - Overall sales grew year-on-year, thanks to increased sales of automotive components.
Operating Income 383 198 93.4 - The Company's income was higher year-on-year, as a result of its efforts to improve productivity and reduce costs. 
Ordinary income 249 179 39.1 -
Current net income 168 83 102.4 -
Automotive components
Sales 10,305 9,727 5.9 -

Challenges for FY2007
Under the aim of becoming one of the best suppliers of forged products with a solid business structure, the Company is committed to:
1. Drastically improving its production efficiency, while reducing overall costs
2. Reforming the level of its quality assurance system 
3. Strengthening its sales and marketing structure 
4. Enhancing both its core and proprietary technology 
5. Maintaining its human resources and providing a safe working environment in a systematic way

R&D

Development Structure
R&D expenses in fiscal 2006 were 22 million yen.
- Number of R&D staff : 18 people 

Research and Development Activities
-The Company is working on developing new technologies and new production engineering, improving the quality of existing products, and making efforts to reduce the cost of goods.
- The Company researched on near-net-shape and net-shape products. Also, it researched new manufacturing methods as well as worked on improving manufacturing processes, both by using 3-D simulation.
- To tackle environmental issues, the Company worked on developing more compact and lighter forged products by enhancing precision, in order to respond to customer demand  to lighten the weight of automobile parts.

Activities in FY 2006 are as follows;
1. Development of net-shaped transmissions (for automobiles) manufactured by using cold forging
2. Development of forged products with net-shaped teeth manufactured by using cold closed forging
3. Development of near net-shaped auto parts by using cold molding
4. Basic research to extend the product life of forging dies

Investment Activities

The total capital investment in fiscal 2006 was 555million yen.

The focus of investments was to build lines for conducting visual appearance inspection and upgrade heat treatment facilities.
- The Company built a new distribution center, and a new office for its Production Department, in addition to refurbishing aging manufacturing facilities at Kyushu Ichitan.


New facilities
Company name
Business establishment
Type of facility Planned investment amount
(total)
(thousand JPY)
Construction start date  completion  Production capacity upon completion
Ichitan
Head office/ Plant
(Gunma pref., Japan)
Forging facilities 1,304,497 2007.03 2008.05 Increased productivity
Kyushu Ichitan
Head office/ Plant
(Oita pref., Japan)
Forging facilities 378,845 2006.09 2008.02 Increased productivity
Daiichi Forging Dalian Co., Ltd.
Head office/ Plant
(Dalian, China)
Forging facilities 47,463 2007.11 2007.12 Increased productivity