Umicore, a Belgium based materials technology group, to open materials plant in Kobe.

Umicore, a Belgium-based materials technology group, is now preparing to open a lithium ion battery materials plant and an adjacent technical center in Kobe in 2011, the group's fourth in the world. Umicore chose Kobe because of the city's proximity to the concentration of solar and lithium ion battery producers, as well as other innovative industries, that stretch along the Osaka bay area from Osaka to Hyogo.