Tokyo – IR & PR Office (Phone: 81-3-5470-3235) (SDK) and its consolidated subsidiary Shoko Co., Ltd. (Shoko) have decided to integrate their businesses in high-performance liquid chromatography* (HPLC). HPLC is used for analyzing molecular weight of polymers, chemical substances in food, pharmaceuticals, and agrochemicals, as well as quality of water. The integration is scheduled to take effect at the end of this month.

SDK will transfer the sale of HPLC instruments to Shoko, and their production to Shoko Scientific Co., Ltd., a Yokohama-based subsidiary of Shoko. Shoko and Shoko Scientific will continue using SDK’s Shodex(TM) brand.

As a result, SDK’s HPLC instrument business and Shoko’s wide-ranging scientific instrument business will be integrated. SDK will hereafter focus on the business in columns*, which are consumables for HPLC instrument. (The columns are traded under the ShodexTM brand.)

Following the integration, SDK and Shoko will concentrate their managerial resources on areas of respective strengths. At the same time, SDK and Shoko will aim to achieve greater synergies between the HPLC instrument business and the columns business, strengthening the Showa Denko Group’s overall scientific instrument operations.

Notes:

1. High-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC): This is a kind of chromatography for analysis of compounds. A liquid pressurized with a pump is passed through a tube filled with gels (columns), resulting in efficient separation and quick/sensitive detection and determination of various compounds. Any compound soluble in water or oil can be analyzed with this method. HPLC is used in organic chemistry and polymer chemistry as well as for analysis of pharmaceuticals, food, and environmental conditions.

2. Columns: These are stainless steel or plastic tubes filled with spherical particles. When a liquid sample is injected through one end of the column, each component in the sample is extracted, depending on the characteristics of the particles and chemical substances contained in the sample. SDK provides more than 800 different types of HPLC columns for analysis of various chemical substances.

Outline of Shoko Co., Ltd.

(Listed on the first section of Tokyo Stock Exchange)

Head office: Minato-ku, Tokyo

President: Hiroshi Nishimoto

Capital: JPY 8,021 million

Shareholders: Showa Denko K.K. (43%) and others

Scope of business: Domestic sale and export/import of plastics,

chemicals, scientific systems, light metals,

inorganic materials, housing materials, machinery,

and electronic materials; real estate

Employees: 260 (441 on a consolidated basis)

Outline of Shoko Scientific Co., Ltd.Head office: Yokohama

President: Hideharu Endo

Capital: JPY50 million

Shareholder: Shoko Co., Ltd. (100%)

Scope of business: Development, production, export/import, sale and

maintenance of scientific instruments and related

products

Employees: 38

About Showa Denko

Showa Denko K.K. (‘SDK’; TSE: 4004, US: SHWDF) is a major manufacturer and marketer of chemical products serving a wide range of fields ranging from heavy industry to the electronic and computer industries. SDK makes petrochemicals (ethylene, propylene), aluminum products (ingots, rods), electronic equipment (hard disks for computers) and inorganic materials (ceramics, carbons). The company has overseas operations and a joint venture with Netherlands-based Montell and Nippon Petrochemicals to make and market polypropylenes. In March 2001, SDK merged with Showa Denko Aluminum Corporation to strengthen the high-value-added fabricated aluminum products operations, and is today developing next-generation optical communications-use wafers. For more information, please visit www.sdk.co.jp