UNIPRES CORPORATION Business report FY2005

Business Highlights

Financial overview
In million yen FY2006 FY2005 Rate of Change (%) Factors
Sales 165,827 161,315 2.8 Sales and profit both increased, thanks to brisk sales of new cars in Mexico and China. These were partially offset by weakened production in Japan, the U.S. and the U.K.
Operating income 6,978 6,520 7.0 Operating income and ordinary income rose as a result of brisk sales at Unipres Mexico and Unipres Guangzhou, as well as groupwide rationalization initiatives including UPS activities 
Ordinary income 7,261 7,037 3.2
Net income 3,479 4,547 (23.5) Net income was down because this year the Company did not transfer the portion of the employees' pension fund, which it paid on behalf of the employees as it did last year, recording the amount on its books.

Reinforcing the Chinese site
The Company will start in-house production of dies at its new machinery plant at Unipres Guangzhou Corporation in China. This is the first time for Unipres to manufacture dies outside Japan. Starting out by making simple ones, the company intends to expand in steps the range of dies it manufactures at the Chinese subsidiary, viewing the possibility of exporting the dies made in China to Japan and other countries in the future. Plans are to achieve in-house production of dies it uses at all of its plants in China over the next three years. Unipres Guangzhou manufactures automotive stamping parts mainly for Dongfeng Motor Co., Ltd. - a joint venture between Dongfeng Motor Company and Nissan Motor Co., Ltd. (From an article in the Nikkan Jidosha Shimbun on Aug. 28, 2006)

R&D

The Company has technological expertise in stamping and molding. It conducts its businesses by cooperating with automakers and steel makers while promoting efficient manufacturing processes based on the UPS policy. Over the past few years, the Company has been promoting efficiency in its development activities by utilizing computer-aided engineering (CAE). 

The Company has 125 R&D staff at present. R&D costs for the reporting period ended March 2007 stood at 1,600 million yen.
The Company has 98 industrial property rights as of March 31, 2007. 

R&D activities in the automotive parts business
Product Development
-Optimizing the strength and rigidity of products
-Developing products that are more compact and lighter in weight 
-Designing products in which stamping technology can be applied 
-Shortening development periods

Material Development

-High-strength steel plates
-Highly rigid plastic materials

Process Development

Stamping process for super high-strength steel plats
Precision metal stamping
Stamping process for light-alloy materials
Welding process for light-alloy materials
Processing of high-strength pipes
Stamping process for high-strength plastics
Compound molding process for plastic composites.

Investment Activities

In FY2006, capital expenditure totaled 20.1 billion yen.

As for auto parts, 19.9 billion yen was invested mainly to remodel auto parts production facilities to deal with the customers' global expansion activities and model changes.

New Facilities

Plant (Location) Business Expected Investment (millions of yen) Started in: Expected to Complete in:
UNIPRES Corporation

Headquarters & Offices
(Yokohama, Kanagawa Prefecture.)
(Fuji, Shizuoka Prefecture.)
(Yamato, Kanagawa Prefecture.)

Measures against earthquakes, etc. 1,200 April, 2007 March, 2008
Kanagawa Plant and Tochigi Plant
(Kanagawa Pref., Japan)
Tochigi Pref., Japan)
Development of production technologies and remodeling of production facilities to deal with model changes 3,900 April, 2007 March, 2008
Fuji Plant and Yamanashi Plant
(Shizuoka Pref., Japan)
(Yamanashi Pref., Japan)
Improvement in production operations and remodeling of production facilities to deal with model changes 2,300 April, 2007 March, 2008
UNIPRES Kyusyu Co., Ltd.  
Headquarters and Plant
(Fukuoka Pref., Japan)
Renewal of production facilities to deal with increased volume and model changes 1,300 April, 2007 March, 2008
UNIPRES U.S.A. INC  
Headquarters and Plant
(USA)
Renewal of production facilities to deal with model changes 650 April, 2007 March, 2008
UNIPRES Mexicana S. A. De C. V.  
Headquarters and Plant
(Mexico)
Renewal of production facilities to deal with model changes 400 Jan., 2007 Dec., 2008
UNIPRES Southeast U.S.A. Inc.  
Headquarters and Plant
(USA)
Renewal of production facilities to deal with model changes 100 April, 2007 March, 2008
UNIPRES (UK) LIMITED  
Headquarters and Plant
(UK)
Renewal of production facilities to deal with increased volume and model changes 800 Jan., 2007 Dec., 2008
UNIPRES Guangzhou Corporation  
Headquarters and Plant
(China)
Production facilities to deal with new vehicle models 2,000 Jan., 2007 Dec., 2008