Interview
Interview with Mr. Heiki Miki, Chairman of Shinagawa Advanced
Materials Americas, Shinagawa Specialty Ceramics Americas, Shinagawa
Refratários do Brasil & Shinagawa Refractories Australasia, andManaging Executive Officer - Shinagawa Refractories
Refwin: It is a great pleasure for Refwin to interview you again! As 2023
comes to an end, how would you summarize Shinagawa's achievements in2023, a year full of challenge and success?
Mr. Heiki Miki: Many thanks to Refractories Window as always for all yourgreat support to global refractories industries and Shinagawa. 2023 wascertainly a challenging year mainly due to sluggish demand for refractories
everywhere in the world except India. Regarding steel production in 2023
from January to November, according to World Steel Association, while
India produced +12.1% more crude steel compared to 2022, China only
produced +1.5% yoy, and the rest of the world produced less than 2022,-3.0%. In spite of this challenging situation, however, Shinagawa is expecting
to post our record revenues and profits for the fiscal year ending March2024. Welcoming Shinagawa Refratários do Brasil and Shinagawa Specialty
Ceramics Americas to our group in December 2022 certainly contributed
greatly to this achievement, while it is also important to mention that ourconstant relentless efforts for improving productivity and reducing costs
around the world have paid off.

Refwin: Shinagawa's global activities are dramatically increasing, especiallysince you took full responsibility for its overseas business. We noticed
that in 2023, Shinagawa appeared in several international exhibitions andconferences. What is the greatest significance for Shinagawa to participate
in international events?
Mr. Heiki Miki: We are always actively looking for opportunities to reachout to our customers, which is essential to ensure that we are able to meetthe ever-changing needs and demands of our customers in a timely andaccurate manner and to provide the best refractory solutions at all times.
Shinagawa’s ultimate goal is always to make ourselves competitive bymaking our customers competitive and, in order for us to do so, ensuring
seamless communication among us as much as possible is the key. That's
why PROXIMITY is at the heart of our strategy. As for international events,
especially AISTech in the US and ABM Week in Brazil, have been very
effective and efficient showcasing opportunities for us to present our latest
technologies and refractory solutions to our customers, and to communicate
with them to identify the best and unique solutions for each customer. By
continuing to provide attentive customer support, Shinagawa always strives
to “Be the Customer’s First Choice.”
Refwin: For you personally, what is the most attractive charm of refractories?
Being engaged in the refractory industry, what is your biggest gain?
Mr. Heiki Miki: Refractories never cease to amaze me. As you know, I joined
Shinagawa in 2014 after 30 years of experiences working in the global steel
industries. And, since then, I have been responsible for our global businessfor 10 years, but I still find something new to learn every day. Although
I was already familiar with the concepts of “selling products abroad” or“doing business globally” from my experiences working in steel industries,
it was a pleasant surprise to find out that refractories require totallydifferent ways to market and sell from steel products. Refractories are very
unique: They are not standardized products and, as a result, customers, nomatter which industry they are in, need to figure out who would be able toproduce the products they need first, then ask potential suppliers to makeproduct proposals based on their technologies and experiences. This is why
PROXIMITY matters. I really enjoy this craftsmanship like processes to create
something pretty new, something totally innovative with our customers.
Also, refractories are so essential. Every inch of our society is made withsome things that require refractories to produce. No refractory, no steel. Norefractory, no cement. No refractory, no glass. And, no refractory, no society
we know of. I am so proud to be in this essential industry supporting oursociety and lives, and truly hope that everyone in global refractory industries
feels the same pride.

Mr. Heiki Miki

8

www.refwin.com

Refwin: In 2023, Shinagawa has made good progress in all subsidiaries, JVs,and offices around the world, can you share the highlights with us?

Vol. 193 Jan. 2024

Mr. Heiki Miki: In 2023, Shinagawa welcomed Shinagawa Refratários do
Brasil in Vinhedo Brazil (SRB) and Shinagawa Specialty Ceramics Americas(SSCA) in Latrobe PA USA to our family.
Brazil and Japan have enjoyed very friendly mutual relations over the years,
both in the politics and the business world. I was very happy to see Ministerfor Foreign Affairs from both countries met in New York in 2023 and shared
the view that Brazil and Japan will continue to strengthen cooperation as"strategic global partners." At SRB, we are blending great cultures from
Brazil and Japan to create our new Shinagawa culture in Brazil. Last year, SRB
introduced their new branding campaign and received various awards frominternational marketing associations. We completely renamed our productswith customer friendly names along with easy to understand ideograms
inspired by Japanese Kanji characters. The new brands seek to show thevalue of our product to the customer, for their industrial processes, while ourprevious product names just focused on raw materials.

us to have a significant competitive edge in the market.
Refwin: In 2023, Shinagawa received a lot of visits. Generally speaking,what kind of visits do you want to receive?
Mr. Heiki Miki: During a very difficult period of COVID-19, we all learned newways to maintaining relationships and connecting with others via web such
as Teams, Zoom and Google Meet. However, the most important lesson I
learned from the pandemic is: Nothing Can Replace the Value of Face-to-Face
Meetings. A sense of intimacy, connection and empathy is such an importantpart of our communications and video meetings simply can’t allow us to feelthem. Via web, it is rather easy for you to participate, but it is rather difficult
to engage, and, I believe creating the sense of engagement is really the key
for successful communications. Especially actively hiring employees fromvarious countries with totally different cultural backgrounds, and having
many people speaking English as their second language within our group, wemust focus on in-person communications.
In 2023, I actively invited our overseas customers and colleagues to Japan for
meetings, discussions and plant tours. I actively encouraged our staff in Japan
to visit overseas customers and our global locations. And, you will see moreof our intercultural in-person interactions in 2024.

SRB Brands with Kanjis

Welcoming SSCA to our family is a significant strategic leap for us too.
Shinagawa has been in ceramics business through Shinagawa Fine Ceramics(SIFCE) in Japan for years and this acquisition enables Shinagawa to tap into
global market for the first time. We are in discussions on how we can bringnew products and values to the market from collaborations between SSCAand SIFCE. Stay tuned.
Refwin: 2023 marks the 25th Anniversary of Shinagawa Refractories
Australasia (SRA) and the 9th Year of PT Shinagawa Refractories Indonesia(SRI), right? Congratulations! What do you think is the key to the success ofShinagawa overseas business?
Mr. Heiki Miki: We were so happy and proud to celebrate the 25th
Anniversary of Shinagawa Refractories Australasia (SRA) last year.
Australasia is rather a matured market for refractories. However, with ourcontinuous and relentless efforts in creating values for our customers, SRA
is still expanding its business in the region with fully taking advantages ofPROXIMITY: PROXIMITY to BlueScope in Unanderra NSW and PROXIMITY
to various mining operations in Kwinana WA. Also, we successfully added anozzle sand business to our product offerings in 2023 by M&A.
Also, can’t wait to celebrate the 10th Anniversary of PT Shinagawa
Refractories Indonesia (SRI) in 2024. Jakarta Indonesia is our strategic hubin Southeast Asia and we are on track to significantly expand Shinagawa
business in the region from there. We have two production sites of Isolite
Insulating Products in Malaysia too, one for ceramic fibers and another for
fire bricks, and collaboration between SRI and these two Isolite’s sites allows

Vol. 193 Jan. 2024

Mr. Heiki Miki receiving two engineers from Brazil

Refwin: Some people have described 2023 as difficult and said 2024 will
be more difficult. How do you think? What measures will be taken for
Shinagawa to ensure growth in 2024?
Mr. Heiki Miki: 2024 might be another challenging year, but we are not the
only one facing the challenges. Challenging situation for refractory industries
means challenging situation for our customer industries. And, in fact, thesechallenges will actually allow us to further differentiate ourselves from thecompetition, allow us to further effectively and efficiently provide our uniquevalues and solutions to our customers.
In particularly, I am unleashing a new campaign in 2024: “We are One
SHINAGAWA.” Our overseas locations are independently managed to best
suit the local business conditions, to implement PROXIMITY strategies. At thesame time, we are producing the same product line in different locations: We
are producing high quality mold powders for continuous casting processes
in USA, China and Japan. We are producing environmentally friendly tap
hole clays for blast furnaces in Brazil, Australia, India and Japan. All ourlocations are procuring similar raw materials too. While we are serving
different markets with totally different and unique local conditions, we also
are all Shinagawa. Our international customers are looking for best practices,www.refwin.com

9Interview
looking for a successful implementation of our solutions at one location to be
implemented at their other locations. We will be “One SHINAGAWA” globally.
Shinagawa will grow our business by supporting our customers’ growth.
Again, Shinagawa’s ultimate goal is always to make ourselves competitive bymaking our customers competitive.
Refwin: For the next 3-5 years, what are Shinagawa's development plans, inparticular its overseas business? Any merger and acquisition plans? Whichregions will be the key development goals?
Mr. Heiki Miki: Shinagawa will celebrate our 150 Years of History in 2025.
This will be certainly a great milestone to celebrate what we have done
during these years, but, at the same time, this will be just the beginning forour new journeys to work with our customers and to support further growthof our society.
In July 2022, we signed a Know-How License Agreement for continuous
casting refractory products and services with Anshan Hefeng Refractory
Material, one of the most prestigious and well-respected refractory
producers in China and our JV partner to produce high quality mold powders

discussions are underway and I am confident that you will start seeing certain
results from this collaboration in the near future.
Our collaboration with Allied Mineral Products in Japan to exclusively market
their monolithic refractory technology for the aluminum market was also
successfully launched and joint customer visits are taking place. We areaiming to capture 20% of the market, to achieve net sales of 2 Billion JPY by2028.
Regarding India, which is the largest growth market for refractories as ofnow, Shinagawa will enter the market in a way that uniquely differentiates us
from other companies by making the most of our cutting-edge technologies,
rather than just simply pursuing volume expansions. Stay with us.
More M&A? Yes. I am sure I will be able to discuss more at our next
interview.
It was very nice talking with you. Thank you very much for this wonderful
opportunity.
Refwin: Thanks for your time to answer all the interview questions, withrich content, wonderful answers and golden sentences frequently. Nearly
can’t wait to interview you again next time.

at Liaoning Shinagawa Hefeng Metallurgical Material. Many positive

If you want to release any comppany news on the next issue, you are welcom
me to send it to
info@refwin.com
m before Feb. 20, 202410

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Vol. 193 Jan. 2024