UBE Corporation (President: Masato Izumihara) announced today that it has decided to take a stake in amu Inc. (Head Office: Kesennuma City, Miyagi Prefecture; CEO: Kodai Kato), which develops upcycled^*1 products from waste fishing nets, by accepting a third-party allocation of shares.

amu Inc. is a venture company headquartered in Kesennuma City, Miyagi Prefecture. Leveraging expertise in collecting waste fishing nets developed through collaboration with Kesennuma's fisheries cooperative and fishermen, amu aims to propose new products made from waste fishing nets collected in and outside of Japan.

UBE has manufactured and sold nylon for fishing nets for many years and sees reducing ocean plastics as part of its social responsibility. UBE will use its long-cultivated technological capabilities for developing engineering plastics to recycle the waste fishing nets collected by amu Inc., and supply products with ensured traceability^*2 and stable quality to markets such as automobile parts. UBE will also drive the development of new markets by supporting amu's product development efforts.

The UBE Group addresses global environmental issues by striving to reduce GHG emissions and pursuing the development and practical application of environmentally friendly products and technologies. By providing more customers with environmentally friendly products, technologies, and solutions, the UBE Group will help to build a carbon neutral world, thereby achieving its vision for 2030, which declares its intent to be "a corporate group centered on specialty chemicals that contributes to the global environment, human health, and an enriched future society."

1. ^*1 Upcycling: Also called creative reuse, this process upgrades byproducts, waste materials, and products that are no longer useful or wanted into materials or products of better quality and higher environmental value.
2. ^*2 Traceability: A system that records and enables identification and tracking of manufacturers, suppliers, sellers, etc., at each process from raw material procurement to manufacturing, shipping, and sales.

Company Data: amu Inc.