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Although Sumitomo initially intended to establish an independent trading house, it opted instead to establish a trading division within an existing group company with a solid business foundation due the prevailing political instability. Its choice fell on Sumitomo Real Estate and Building Company Co., Ltd., which offered several advantages. These included a healthy asset portfolio as the owner of Sumitomo Building and land in the Osaka Hokko area, and the existence of a civil engineering and construction design business, which was expedient for selling materials required for postwar reconstruction.
Sumitomo Real Estate and Building Company was formed when its predecessor organization Osaka Hokko Kaisha Ltd., which was founded in 1919 to build the Osaka city’s port and develop neighboring land, merged with Sumitomo Building Co., Ltd. (founded in 1923) shortly before the end of the war in 1944. In this sense, Sumitomo Corporation can trace its origins back to Osaka Hokko Kaisha Ltd.
In response to the official zaibatsu dissolution order issued by GHQ on November 6, 1945, Sumitomo announced the breakup of Sumitomo Honsha the following day and changed the name of Sumitomo Real Estate and Building Company to Nihon Kensetsu Sangyo Kaisha, Ltd., adding “sale of civil engineering and construction materials, and other products” to its business line. It was at this point that Sumitomo had finally achieved its goal of establishing a trading arm.
The civil engineering and construction business that played a role in postwar reconstruction was split in 1950, which left the company with two main functions of trading and real estate.
Two years later, the ban on the use of zaibatsu trade names and trademarks was lifted as the Treaty of Peace with Japan took effect. The igeta (well frame) symbol that symbolized Sumitomo’s business strength and integrity had been in use since January 1952, and on June 1 of the same year, the company’s name was changed to Sumitomo Shoji Kaisha Ltd.; the English name Sumitomo Corporation was adopted much later. From this date, the company made a fresh start as the trading arm of the Sumitomo Group in both name and substance.
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Crystal Mover
An automatic people-move system for Washington Dulles International
Airport in Virginia, U.S., an order that Sumitomo Corporation
of America won jointly with Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd.
When fully completed, this system will have a total length of
10 km, a world record for an airport. |
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| A grinding circuit and flotation-based concentrator
plant in Batu Hijau, Indonesia, that converts crushed copper
and gold ore into concentrates. Sumitomo Corporation's Mineral
Resources & Energy Business Unit aims to broaden its range
of revenue sources through acquisition of upstream resource
rights, develop new horizons in electricity retailing and new
technology-related businesses, and to realize a more sophisticated
trading-house functions for increased trading revenues. |
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Construction site at the Phu My 2-2 thermal
power plant
The Machinery & Electric Business Unit’s business activities
include investment in various electric power projects around
the world, water and energy supply-based infrastructure development,
and solution-oriented telecommunications projects. Shown here
is the site of a thermal power plant in Vietnam. |
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