is a Japanese manufacturer of chemicals, fibers and other materials. Their main manufacturing facilities are located in

Kurashiki, Okayama is a city located in Okayama Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 478,651 and a population density of 1300 persons per km2. The total area of the city is . Geography Kurashiki is located in the south-central part of Okay ...

. The company's Tokyo administrative offices are located in Otemachi, Chiyoda in the Ote Center Building and its Osaka offices are located in the Umeda Hankyu Building). , Kuraray was the sole worldwide producer of

Vectran Vectran is a manufactured fiber, spun from a liquid-crystal polymer (LCP) created by Celanese Corporation and now manufactured by Kuraray. Chemically it is an aromatic polyester produced by the polycondensation of 4-hydroxybenzoic acid and 6 ...

liquid crystal polymer Liquid crystal polymers (LCPs) are polymers with the property of liquid crystal, usually containing aromatic rings as mesogens. Despite uncrosslinked LCPs, polymeric materials like liquid crystal elastomers (LCEs) and liquid crystal networks (LC ...

(LCP) fibre. The company is listed in the first section of

Tokyo Stock Exchange The , abbreviated as Tosho () or TSE/TYO, is a stock exchange located in Tokyo, Japan. The exchange is owned by Japan Exchange Group (JPX), a holding company that it also lists (), and operated by Tokyo Stock Exchange, Inc., a wholly owned sub ...

and is a member of the

Nikkei 225 The Nikkei 225, or , more commonly called the ''Nikkei'' or the ''Nikkei index'' (), is a stock market index for the Tokyo Stock Exchange (TSE). It is a price-weighted index, operating in the Japanese yen, Japanese Yen (JP¥), and its compone ...

stock market index In finance, a stock index, or stock market index, is an Index (economics), index that measures the performance of a stock market, or of a subset of a stock market. It helps investors compare current stock price levels with past prices to calcul ...

. Kuraray is a member of the Mizuho

keiretsu A is a set of companies with interlocking business relationships and shareholdings that dominated the Japanese economy in the second half of the 20th century. In the legal sense, it is a type of business group that is in a loosely organized al ...

History

In April 2015, Kuraray acquired the Australian manufacturer of biobased barrier films Plantic Technologies. In September 2017, Kuraray acquired Calgon Carbon for $1.1 billion, an activated carbon maker based in Pittsburgh. In February 2021, Kuraray signed the global framework of the

United Nations Global Compact The United Nations Global Compact is a non-binding United Nations pact to get businesses and firms worldwide to adopt sustainable and socially responsible policies, and to report on their implementation. The UN Global Compact is the world's ...

Product Offerings

Various products are described below: *

Clarino is a brand name for artificial leather manufactured by Kuraray. It is commonly used in garments, accessories, bags, shoes, furniture, and consumer electronics. Clarino is based on a non-woven fabric composed of synthetic fibers that are inter ...

* EVAL * Felibendy (

nonwoven fabric Nonwoven fabric or non-woven fabric is a fabric-like material made from staple fibre (short) and long fibres (continuous long), bonded together by chemical, mechanical, heat or solvent treatment. The term is used in the textile manufacturing in ...

of Sophista composite fiber, see below) * Genestar * MOWIOL * MOWIFLEX * MOWITAL / PIOLOFORM * KURARAY POVAL * Septon * Sophista (fiber:

polyester Polyester is a category of polymers that contain one or two ester linkages in every repeat unit of their main chain. As a specific material, it most commonly refers to a type called polyethylene terephthalate (PET). Polyesters include some natura ...

core, ethylene vinyl alcohol-coated) *

* Butacite® / TROSIFOL brand

polyvinyl butyral Polyvinyl butyral (or PVB) is a resin mostly used for applications that require strong binding, optical clarity, adhesion to many surfaces, toughness and flexibility. It is prepared from polyvinyl alcohol by reaction with butyraldehyde. The m ...

Gallery

Incidents

In May 2018, an explosion occurred in Kuraray's

Pasadena Pasadena ( ) is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States, northeast of downtown Los Angeles. It is the most populous city and the primary cultural center of the San Gabriel Valley. Old Pasadena is the city's original commercial d ...

plant in the US, injuring 21 workers. The plant is the world's largest ethylene vinyl alcohol plant. Kuraray agreed to pay a total of $92 million in settlement to the affected employees. In September 2019, a plasticizer leaked from Kuraray's plant in Fayetteville to the

Cape Fear River The Cape Fear River is a blackwater river in east-central North Carolina. It flows into the Atlantic Ocean near Cape Fear, from which it takes its name. The river is formed at the confluence of the Haw River and the Deep River in the town of ...

, forcing the Brunswick County to stop drawing water from the river.

References

External links

Official global website

Kuraray America, Inc.

Kuraray Europe GmbH
Chemical companies based in Tokyo Textile companies of Japan Companies listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange Companies in the Nikkei 225 Japanese companies established in 1926 Chemical companies established in 1926 Companies based in Osaka Prefecture {{japan-company-stub