“In November of last year Koatsu Gas Kogyo opened its first office overseas manned by its own personnel in Ho Chi Min City, Vietnam. The office is to handle chemical products such as adhesives. Currently it is engaged in market research and advertisement of Koatsu Gas Kogyo products.

While adhesives are having a hard time achieving growth in Japan, due to the firm demand for use with home furnishings in Vietnam, what stands out there is the movement of overseas firms into the country in recent years. In addition to the Japanese firm Konishi, companies such as the Dutch firm AkzoNobel. Go and the Indonesia firm Lemindo have appeared on the scene there. In addition, as for users of adhesives, a major Japanese manufacturer of home furnishings is now manufacturing in Hanoi. With sights set on developing future markets overseas, Koatsu Gas Kogyo has been investigating the opening of an office since April of last year.

The office is located in the tallest skyscraper in Ho Chi Min City, the 33 story Saigon Tax Trade Center on Nguyen Hue road, the central financial and business district. Currently only one person is stationed there but the company plans to increase this to 2 or 3. During the next year or 2, based on the results of the market survey, the company will determine whether to turn the office into a local company or to produce adhesives locally.

The company stated “By promoting marketing activities even further, we’ll grasp the requirements there, aiming at acquiring the ability to function as a trading company as soon as possible. Although it depends on how the business progresses, as a initial goal we would like to raise overseas sales to 400-500 million yen.””