Industry Activities
Celebrating 70th Anniversary with R&D of Next-generation Fasteners
Yura Sansho Co. Ltd.
Established in Japan in 1945, Yura Sansho Co. Ltd is now celebrating its 70th anniversary of business. Initially, the company mainly focused on construction and civil engineering industry with high demand for fasteners and supplied steel hex head bolts and nuts. During the period when Japan started to experience surging economic growth, the demand for fasteners used in construction, civil engineering equipment, construction equipment and machine tools increased, dramatically boosting the company’s revenues. In response to versatile fastener demands, it continued to expand the range of fasteners in stock, and has finally become a large-scale warehouser and a distributor with tens of millions of fasteners in stock. Now, it has been devoted to developing, producing, and selling products with high added value, such as products with high tensile strength in alloy steels and in corrosion resistant steels, as well as strictly regulated aerospace components.
Corporate Value: Just-in-time Supply & Professional Quality
We are very curious about why this well-reputed and competitive company with ambitious visions could have sustained in the Japanese market for more than half a century. Yasumasa Yura President explains, “For 50 years we have been a leader in the Japanese fastener industry. Our role is to carry his inventory in our warehouse for clients, we purchase a large amount of fasteners from manufacturers and store them in stock. We have the largest inventory (of over 7,000 tons) in Japan and distribute over 50,000 types of fasteners, offering them Just-In-Time supply of various fasteners. Meanwhile, we purchase products with good performance, and our primary mission is to keep supply-chain with plenty of amount and solve all kinds of fastening problems for our clients. By purchasing a large amount of fasteners and stocking, on one hand, we can not only increase manufacturers’ production efficiency, but on the other hand also purchase products at lower prices with amount.” Obviously, the corporate value of Yura Sansho lies on inventory, clients’ improved production efficiency, and fastening solutions. The president adds, “the requirement on fastener quality of Japanese clients have been increasing than before; therefore, we are the first to have obtained ISO9001/14001 certification in Japanese fastener warehouser and distributor. We dedicate ourselves to product quality enhancement, shipment quality management, and regional environment protection. Additionally, we have obtained JIS Q 9100 (AS9100) certificate for aerospace industry with high grade quality management system and NADCAP international certificate for special engineering, in order to join in aerospace industry. We even have built a network where we function as a critical hub for connecting Japanese component makers related to the aerospace industry.”
Developing Next-generation Products
Currently Yura Sansho focuses on the domestic market, but it also has sales businesses in Europe and Asia. In the future, the company will aim at the global market. “In response to that, we cooperate with top-notch Japanese manufacturers and have developed various high strength fasteners, such as Class 14.9 socket head cap screws (made from special alloy steel with excellent resistance against delayed-fracture, with tensile strength 1400N/mm2 and elongation over 9%) and Grade A2-90/A2-100 at high tensile strength level in austenite stainless steel fasteners (made from self-developed and non-magnetic Austenitic SUS304CUN steel with tensile strength 1000N/mm2 and resistance against stress corrosion crack equivalent to SUS316). These are all next-generation products utilizing Japanese premium materials and state-of the-art technology.
Moreover, the company offers products made of nickel alloy, titanium alloy, plastic, etc., to satisfy demands for high strength fasteners and further we deal with lot kinds of Japan-made quality products which demand in the world fastener market. We are looking for partners and clients seeking Japanese high quality and stringent standard rather than low grade products.”
Yura Sansho’s Vertical & Horizontal Integration of Production, Purchase, and Sales
Since its inception, Yura Sansho has been selling and distributing products made in Japan. Over 90% of its products are made in Japan. The company keeps close partnership with many highly skilled Japanese fastener manufacturers. Furthermore, it also has a subsidiary factory primarily producing steel hex head bolts. Additionally, it imports metric/inch standard parts form U.S. distributors and imports cost-competitive standard parts from countries like Taiwan, China, and Thailand.
Outlook for Emerging Markets
For many years Japan has been actively developing business in emerging markets like Southeast Asia. You might ask: What is Yura Sansho’s perception of this market? Yasumasa Yura president replies, “Many customers of Yura Sansho have expanded their business to Southeast Asia and some of them even participated in projects of local infrastructure, indicating the fact that the Asian market is full of charm. However, the company for now remains as a back support for those clients in Southeast Asia.
Particularly, during the period of the high economic growth (in 1954~1973), Japan continuously adopted and utilized excellent manufacturing methods introduced from advanced countries to reach its unique rapid development. Presumably, the industrial structure of Asia (and Southeast Asia in particular) will continue to transform and the demand and requirement for fasteners and components will become more stringent like Japan. High-end fasteners demand in Asian markets will be our company’s new target of development. Be aware that there is an enterprise like us in Japan, and there exists excellent products for your market.” We can expect in the future that Yura Sansho will open a new page in those new markets.
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