Kaneka to Construct New Catheter Plant in Hokkaido

– Roughly 10 Billion Yen Investment to Expand Medical Business Globally –

KANEKA CORPORATION
November 7, 2024
Kaneka Corporation (Headquarters: Minato-ku, Tokyo; President: Kazuhiko Fujii) has decided to build a new catheter plant at the Tomatoh Manufacturing Site*1 in Hokkaido, following the completion of the blood purification devices plant completed in August.
The investment is approximately 10 billion yen to be made by its affiliate company Kaneka Medix Corporation*2 (Headquarters: Osaka-city, Osaka; President: Shozo Ishizaka), and the plant is scheduled to begin operations in March 2027.

Kaneka manufactures and sells medical catheters globally in variety of fields in medical care such as endovascular treatment catheters for cardiovascular, peripheral vascular and neurovascular disease, gastroenterology intervention for the treatment of cancer and other gastrointestinal disease, as well as testing and treatment medical devices for irregular pulse. After the completion of the new catheter plant, the production capacity will approximately double the present capacity.

Populations are aging, especially in developed countries, and the number of patients suffering from cardiac disease, cerebral disorders, and cancer is rising. The scale of the market for surgery using medical catheters is expanding globally, as it is a less invasive treatment for patients. In response to this strong demand, we aim to expand our business by providing globally competitive products from the Tomatoh region of Hokkaido, which has good access by land, sea and air, and we aim to achieve sales of 300 billion yen in the Health Care Solutions Unit by 2030.

The new plant will be a “smart factory” that utilizes cutting-edge technologies such as IoT, AI, and robots, as well as big data, and will be an automated factory without field operations by human.
In addition, we will promote sustainable manufacturing by using our photovoltaic modules to achieve a “zero-energy factory” with zero primary energy consumption for the factory building.

Based on our mission of "KANEKA thinks 'Wellness First'.", we will realize a world where advanced medical care is accessible to everyone and where science contributes to the innovation of the global environment and our daily lives. From Tomakomai, "Kaneka, the Dream Factory" will make this vision a reality.

                                    
                                                                Example of Balloon Catheter Product


*1. News Release August 28, 2024
Kaneka Completes Construction of Medical Device Plant in Hokkaido
－Tomatoh Manufacturing Site, the First New Domestic Business Location in 54 Years－
https://www.kaneka.co.jp/en/topics/news/2024/ennr2408281.html
*2. Kaneka Medix Corporation was established in 1993 with the aim of expanding the catheters business. It is the main company that sells all of the medical devices manufactured and sold by the Kaneka Group and is also responsible for the manufacture of catheters.