On February 24, Yamato Sangyo, a manufacturer of pressure regulators, established a joint venture with H2 Energy Japan (hereafter H2EJ), a sales agency for products related to fuel cells. The joint venture will engage in operating simple hydrogen filling stations for fuel cell vehicles (FCV).

The joint venture will be called Yamato H2 Energy Japan, with headquarters located at the Yamato Sango Headquarters in Ikuno Ward, Osaka. The new company will be capitalized at 6 million yen, with Yamato Sangyo putting up 45%, and H2EJ 55%.

The new company will be involved in the business of producing and marketing simple hydrogen stations for FCVs using products produced by Yamato Sangyo. It will also manufacture and produce power supply systems for emergency use employing PEM type fuel cells.

The construction of 100 hydrogen stations is being advocated to get ready for the commencement of FCV marketing in 2015. Construction costs for a station are said to run to 400-500 million yen. It will be hard indeed for operators of gas stations to add hydrogen filling to their operations during the initial stage when the number of FCVs around will be small. The new company will therefore offer gas station operators who are thinking about getting into supplying hydrogen at some point in the future low cost, simple hydrogen stations as a first step. It also has its sights on employing them at locations which do not require full scale hydrogen filling facilities such as car dealers and companies handling the obligatory periodical car inspections.