Regarding the Use of Our Soarnol (EVOH resin) in Fuel Tanks

16^th March, 2005

A product of the Nippon Synthetic Chemical Industry Co., Ltd., Soarnol (an ethylene-vinyl alcohol copolymer resin) was adopted by Toyota-related FTS (head office in Inazawa City, Aichi Prefecture), a plastic fuel tank manufacturer.

We had been trying to persuade FTS to use Soarnol for the last several years, and we have finally reached an agreement for the use of our product. This Soarnol is a high-barrier-type resin, which is what we specialize in, and is highly heat stable.

Soarnol has already been used by a major European plastic fuel tank manufacturer for the last several years, and it has been used in cars produced in Europe, which include Japanese cars.

With the use of our product in Toyota cars sold in the Japanese market, it is hoped that the expansion of our Soarnol business in fuel tanks, combined with the product's performance, which we have confidence in, will accelerate in the future.

Ethylene-vinyl alcohol copolymer resin has excellent gas barrier properties and solvent barrier properties, and with this resin a melting and molding process is possible. It is estimated that the global demand was approximately 80,000 tons in 2004. Regionally speaking, the market size in North America and Europe is large, but globally the main use of this resin is in food packaging. Although currently its use in plastic fuel tanks is approximately over 10% of the total, it is expected that in the near future the proportion will significantly increase in Japan and the rest of Asia because more fuel tanks will be produced using plastic.