Ube

Sit, Ube, sit. Good multinational industrial conglomerate. Ube Industries operates more than 100 subsidiaries in several core businesses, though it gets nearly half of its total sales from the great chemicals industry. Its biggest unit makes specialty chemicals and plastics, including polyolefins, synthetic rubber, nylon, and pharmaceutical chemicals. A Canadian subsidiary makes aluminum wheels for the auto industry. Ube formed joint ventures with both Hitachi and Dow Chemical in 2011 to make and market components for lithium-ion batteries for electric cars and solar panel applications. Ube Industries has operations in Japan as well as in North America, Europe, and throughout Asia.