NEWS OF THE WEEK
JAPANESE FIRMS WEATHER DISASTERS FINANCE: Despite catastrophes, profit
drop in fiscal first half is modest
Azuma, a Tokyo-based chemical stock analyst at the securities firm Jefferies & Co. Their financial statements do not yet convey the impact of the current global slowdown, Azuma says, because of a three-month delay in how Japanese companies account for their foreign subsidiaries.
JAPAN’S FIRST HALF
J
Most companies’ profits are lower than a year ago
APANESE CHEMICAL firms mostly posted lower
profits in the first half of their fiscal year ending on March 31, 2012. But given that companies in Japan had to cope with a massive earthquake, a tsunami, power shortages, and a record-high currency during the period, it could have been far worse. Shin-Etsu Chemical was the major chemical company that was most affected by this year’s catastrophes. Its net earnings were down 18% compared with a year ago. Still, that is a relatively modest erosion in profit considering that the March 11 earthquake severely damaged Shin-Etsu facilities producing polyvinyl chloride and silicon wafers—the company’s main products. Japan’s largest chemical producer, Mitsubishi Chemical, reported a 15% drop in earnings compared with the same period a year ago. As in Shin-Etsu’s case, the setback is small given that the earthquake downed Mitsubishi’s big Kashima plant for two months. Japanese companies owe their resilient results in part to an accounting quirk, points out Yoshihiro
BETTER DYE YIELDS BETTER SOLAR CELL ENERGY RESEARCH: Zinc and cobalt replace ruthenium and iodine, and set a record
B
Y JUDICIOUS modification of a dye molecule to
better absorb light, and use of a more efficient electron-transfer reagent, a multi-institution research team has created a new class of dye-sensitized solar cell (DSC) that sets a record for power conversion efficiency. The achievement pushes DSC efficiency closer to—but still only about half of—that of standard silicon-based solar cells. Unlike silicon solar cells, DSCs use separate molecules for absorbing light and electron transport, which makes them more versatile, easier to make, and less costly. Until now, ruthenium complexes have typically been used as a light-absorbing dye to transfer electrons to a titanium dioxide nanocrystal semiconductor layer on an electrode. An iodide/triiodide (I-/I3-) redox shuttle completes the circuit by mediating electron transfer from a counterelectrode back to the dye. In the new DSC, the researchers turned to a zinc
$ MILLIONS
Asahi Kasei JSR Kaneka Mitsubishi Mitsui Shin-Etsu Sumitomo Teijin Toray
SALES CHANGE 2011 FROM 2010
$10,412 2,211 3,048 20,382 9,810 6,767 12,958 5,109 10,381
4.9% 0.0 4.7 0.4 12.3 -2.1 0.9 -1.6 9.1
EARNINGSa CHANGE 2011 FROM 2010
$496 151 37 487 173 663 -35 119 520
34.3% -12.8 -54.8 -14.7 -22.0 -18.1 nm -20.5 60.9
PROFIT MARGINb 2011
2010
4.8% 6.8 1.2 2.4 1.8 9.8 def 2.3 5.0
3.7% 7.8 2.8 2.8 2.5 11.7 0.3 2.9 3.4
NOTE: Monetary figures were calculated at the Sept. 30 exchange rate of $1.00 U.S. = 77.04 yen. a After-tax earnings including exceptional items. b After-tax earnings as a percentage of sales. def = deficit. nm = not meaningful
In this context, Toray Industries appears to be thriving because much of the company’s business is outside Japan, Azuma says. The firm reported a net profit of $520 million, representing a 61% advance compared with a year ago.—JEAN-FRANÇOIS TREMBLAY
porphyrin and used a cobalt(II/III) bipyridine redox shuttle (Science, DOI: 10.1126/science.1209688). The research team was led by Michael Grätzel and Shaik M. Zakeeruddin of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Lausanne; Chen-Yu Yeh of Taiwan’s National Chung HO O Hsing University; and Eric Wei-Guang Diau of Taiwan’s National Chiao Tung University. Tailoring the porphyrin ring with octyloxy groups turned out to be an important part of the new DSC’s efficiency. The alkoxy chains inhibit the cobalt mediator’s access to the titanium dioxide layer, ( )7 thereby reducing incidental back electron trans- ( )7 O O fer to boost power conversion efficiency at N N higher voltage and current. The researchers Zn achieved a record 12.3% efficiency, breaking N N the DSC record of 11.4% for ruthenium-iodide O O systems. ( )7 ( )7 The development represents “a significant N breakthrough in the field of dye-sensitized ( ) ( ) solar cells that will have a strong impact 5 5 on research and perhaps also on industrial Customized zinc porphyrin dye development of this technology,” says Gerrit Boschloo of Uppsala University, in Sweden. Last year, Boschloo and coworkers first showed that an alternative redox mediator—the cobalt bipyridine system—could beat the iodide/triiodide system in DSC efficiency (J. Am. Chem. Soc., DOI: 10.1021/ ja1088869).—STEVE RITTER
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