KITZ on track to ‘Change the Flow’

In an industry where anticipating future societal and industrial shifts is essential, KITZ Corporation has revised its Corporate Mission to align its core business offerings with emerging customer requirements. Here, Mr. Makoto Kohno, CEO, and Mr. Yasunori Sugita, Senior Executive Officer, Industrial Business Unit, take the time to explain their new developments.

By Kiyo Ichikawa, Valve World

Valve World’s interview with KITZ couldn’t have been better timed, coming at the conclusion of KITZ’s first medium-term management plan. This plan – and the ones to follow – form part and parcel of KITZ’s long-term efforts as it works towards the 2030 long-term management vision to ‘Change the Flow’ [see box].

Achieving this vision requires quite some changes within the KITZ organisation, but the intention can be readily explained, states CEO Mr Kohno. “Simply put, we foresee an emerging need to align ourselves ever-closer to our customers. The world is changing, and KITZ intends to lead that change.”

New business units

Historically, KITZ’s sales and production departments have been organised by function. However, as part of the company’s 2030 vision, a system based on business units (hereinafter BU) has just been implemented. The main pillars are the Building Facilities and Machinery Equipment BU, the Industrial BU, and the Semiconductor BU.

Mr Kohno comments: “Building facilities, machinery equipment and petrochemicals have long been our core businesses. In addition, we are launching businesses in areas such as water treatment, fine chemicals and hydrogen and clean energy. Whilst steadily expanding our core markets, we will also be allocating resources to additional areas with good growth potential. This will require a full-scale organisational reform. Each unit will then benefit from a deeper focus and narrower scope of coverage, enabling far-reaching market penetration, a quicker response to customers and the ability to deliver comprehensive solutions.”

As part of its growth investments, KITZ completed construction of a new plant in Vietnam in December 2024 for stainless steel valves for industrial applications. It also expanded its factory building in Brazil. For the semiconductor market, a new plant building was completed at KITZ SCT in Japan in April 2023. In addition, construction of a factory for valves compatible with high-purity gases for semiconductor equipment also in Vietnam, began in late 2024 and will be operational by the end of 2025.

Mr Kohno explains that capital investments in valves for semiconductor production are being made now in anticipation of market buoyancy in 2026. “It is important for us to further expand our contributions to society. As a long-term supplier of valves to the semiconductor industry, we recognise our role in the ongoing digitalisation trend. Our valves have proven their reliability in the direct production process. Yet semiconductor factories require additional hardware, such as server rooms, temperature control, precise air-conditioning systems, pure water treatment plants, etc. These are all examples of areas where we can provide optimum support to customers and grow our business.”

Group unity

As the second medium-term management plan gets underway, KITZ staff at all levels are picking up the pace of change.

Mr Kohno: “The key word is speed. Having a shared sense of urgency and determination is vital to realise complex projects. As CEO, I am pleased to see KITZ employees unifying and cooperating. More than ever, the KITZ Group is coming together as one true team.” KITZ’s long-term policy for openness amongst employees is certainly paying dividends. “KITZ is not a company with entrenched ideas or overbearing hierarchy. We promote horizontal flow, meaning that there are no boundaries between colleagues. Interaction between employees is a strength! As is diversity: we have a roughly fifty-fifty split of working recruits and new graduates, and we are also working towards hiring an even more diverse workforce in the future.”

Hydrogen

At the recent Valve World show, KITZ delivered two presentations on the topic of valve developments for hydrogen use. These included valves for liquid hydrogen as well as valves for hydrogen-powered aircraft. As Japan is one of the leading nations when it comes to hydrogen,
Mr Kohno is determined that KITZ should be prepared to serve this potentially enormous sector.

“I’m looking forward to the next three years.” Mr Kohno, CEO, KITZ Corporation”

“The world has to reduce carbon dioxide emissions and hydrogen could play a significant role as an energy carrier. We are therefore working to ramp up our valve offerings and contributing to a cleaner society. From our perspective, we are now seeing an expansion in this area. In fact, we are getting enquiries from many sectors and are now expanding our scope accordingly. There are a lot of technical considerations with hydrogen valves. For example, valves for hydrogen gas need to have low emissions. Meanwhile, valves for liquid hydrogen are even more challenging, as vacuum insulation is required to maintain the liquid state.”

” Did you know… that KITZ manufactures more than 90,000 varieties of valves to meet customer needs?”

Mr Kohno further comments that ‘hydrogen’ could well form KITZ’s next pillar. “We are beginning to see signs of success so envisage further increases in productivity and will use the resulting resources to focus on the new hydrogen business. In addition, KITZ will not limit itself to hydrogen valves, but will expand its business area to engineering, including the sale and installation of units that combine equipment in accordance with customer needs.”

Global presence

KITZ remains determined to provide continuity of service to all customers, whatever the notions of market forces.

In practical terms, this means investing in production locations in multiple countries – hence the newly-opened Vietnam factory. “Together with our existing factories in Thailand, we can now provide a more extensive range of valves to customers throughout the ASEAN region – which incidentally is a target market for us. Competition is robust, but we can compete on the basis of quality, performance and added value. Potentials include building facilities and the data centres which are starting to be established in the region.” Demographics can also lead to changes in demand for valves. Mr Kohno: “KITZ originally established an Indian office in 2009 and acquired Micro Pneumatics, an Indian industrial valve manufacturer with strengths in pharmaceuticals and food, in 2015. In 2024, we will establish a local sales company, which we consider to be an important base for the KITZ Group. We aim to expand the Indian market by further developing the technical products of each company in the KITZ Group in cooperation with Micro Pneumatics and the local sales company.”

KITZ has also raised its presence in the Middle East with a marketing office in Dubai. Comments Mr Kohno: “The region has obviously been dominated by oil and gas activity but now Saudi Arabia amongst others is launching renewable energy projects and building mega-solar plants. KITZ group products can be used to enter various markets there as well, so the Middle East is another focus area for us.”

Of course, KITZ is alert to the needs of customers in mature markets, such as Europe, China and the USA. Comments Mr Sugita: “We have two production locations in Europe. Interesting local markets include semiconductors, data centres and automobile plants. Further, we anticipate that multiple segments will continue to grow in the USA, at least up to 2030. These include oil and gas, renewable energy, the automobile sector, semiconductors, building construction, etc.”

When asked how valve requirements for buildings were changing, Mr Kohno says: “Materials for the actual buildings may remain the same, but piping methods and materials are evolving rapidly. There is increasing emphasis on issues such as greater convenience, durability, simpler construction, automatic control and IOT, for example. KITZ is responding with new products and new ways of using them.”

Valve innovations

As a customer-centric company, KITZ uses customer feedback to initiate upgrades to existing product lines and develop new ranges. Says Mr Sugita: “For our industrial customers, we are currently working on valves for automation and instrumentation. Recently we announced our BX series pneumatic actuators and KCV series control valves, which will form the mainstay of our automatic instrumentation valve offering.” Additionally, KITZ will continue to focus on developing severe service valves that can provide solutions for customers’ challenging applications. Features already available include extreme temperature, erosive, abrasive and high-cycle applications. Naturally KITZ remains fully aware of evolving standards. “Nowadays, standards for fugitive emissions, such as ISO and API, are becoming increasingly strict. Especially for ammonia and hydrogen. We ensure our industrial products are certified to comply with these standards,” says Mr Sugita.

Finally, Mr Sugita notes KITZ’s exceptionally wide range of PFA-lined valves. “We can fulfil almost all of the valve needs of the functional chemicals arena. We would like to explore more niche needs and expand our products into a wider market.”

Widening the portfolio

In 2024, KITZ organised conventions in Tokyo and Osaka to update stakeholders on the company’s ability to deliver tailored solutions in specific market segments.

Mr Kohno: “We realised that many people were unaware of our combined capabilities. The KITZ Group has 35 member companies, making numerous products marketed under a wide range of brands. We hadn’t held such a convention since 1989, so felt it was time to reconnect with customers and raise our profile.”

Mr Kohno was delighted with the response and turnout of the conventions. “We welcomed almost 5,000 people! The conventions helped us to connect even more closely with customers and confirmed our commitment to the new BU. We will continue to participate at exhibitions but see real merit in organising our own events, both in Japan and overseas.”

Looking ahead, Mr Kohno indicates that KITZ will continue to boost customer engagement. “We must justify clients’ trust in us. That means being more responsive, making fast decisions and continuing to offer innovative products that will add value to their systems. We expect that the groundwork undertaken during the first medium-term management plan will quickly come into bloom, as will the new products and capital investments.”

And perhaps most tellingly, Mr Kohno concludes by highlighting how KITZ Group is developing its portfolio in width as well as depth. “For decades, our sole focus has been on valves. Now we are expanding our offering to include equipment and devices and even going so far as to do engineering. For example, did you know we now manufacture industrial filters, have a range of hydrogen generators and offer water treatment systems? Well, suppose a customer is planning to build a new factory and wishes to have green systems for energy and water. In that case, KITZ would like to be a company that can contribute to the infrastructure that supports lifelines such as electricity, gas and water, for example by installing solar power generation units, providing storage batteries, installing hydrogen generation equipment, and installing groundwater purification systems etc. Valves are the core of our business, but we are also a company that can contribute to society in many other areas. We are passionate about expanding into new fields. I believe this creativity and determination are amongst KITZ’s key strengths and will help us, and our customers, to ‘Change the Flow’.”