Deep Intelligence Across Industries

Kurita is Japan's largest specialist in industrial water treatment and one of a handful of companies worldwide that can design, build, own and run ultrapure-water (UPW) systems for leading-edge semiconductor fabs. The group combines three things that rarely sit together: water-treatment chemicals sold globally into heavy industry; engineering of UPW, wastewater and water-recycling plants; and long-term service contracts. Those contracts include build-own-operate UPW "water supply" arrangements in which Kurita owns the plant on the customer's site and bills by volume. Electronics makes up about 43% of sales but well over half of the profit pool once maintenance and supply contracts are counted. General industry (refining, petrochemicals, steel, paper, food and power) provides a large, defensive chemicals and maintenance base. Under its PSV-27 plan Kurita is shifting from selling equipment toward value-linked services ("CSV business") and is pruning loss-making assets. The 2026 sale of U.S. precision-cleaning subsidiary Pentagon Technologies is the clearest example. Two things now test the strategy: execution on a growing book of large overseas fab projects, after a ¥23.6bn overrun on one U.S. project in October 2026, and rebuilding trust after data falsification at an analytics subsidiary. --- **What the company does.** Kurita sells products, technologies and services across the whole industrial water cycle: making process water (including UPW), using it efficiently (boiler, cooling and process chemicals), and treating, recycling or recovering resources from wastewater. In its Annual Securities Report the company describes its business as providing a wide range of water-treatment technologies, products and maintenance services. Through FY2022 it reported this as two activities: water treatment chemicals (manufacture and sale of chemicals, plus maintenance) and water treatment facilities (manufacture and sale of equipment and plants, plus maintenance). In its current self-description the president calls Kurita a "performance enhancer" for industry. The idea is that operating data gathered at customer sites becomes "Kurita Water Intelligence", which lifts customers' productivity, yield and energy efficiency rather than just treating water. **Reporting segments (since FY2023):** **Electronics Industry:** UPW production and wastewater facilities for semiconductor, flat-panel and electronic-component makers; UPW supply contracts; maintenance; electronics-grade chemicals; precision cleaning of fab tool parts (in Japan, after the Pentagon sale). **General Industry:** water-treatment and process chemicals; water-treatment facilities; maintenance; recurring contract-based services; soil and groundwater remediation; environmental analysis; software and data services. **Revenue model mix.** Kurita splits its business into three types: **Facilities:** project-based equipment and plant engineering, recognized as construction progresses. **Recurring contract-based services:** UPW and water-supply contracts, long-term operation and maintenance, and outsourced water management. **Services:** chemicals and maintenance, which are high-frequency, consumable-like revenue. In FY2026 the General Industry segment's ¥231.1bn of sales broke down as follows: - Chemicals ¥121.2bn (52%) - Maintenance ¥50.7bn (22%) - Facilities ¥37.3bn (16%) - Recurring contracts ¥12.5bn (5%) - Soil remediation and analysis ¥9.4bn (4%) In Electronics, the ¥171.8bn total included: - Maintenance ¥25.1bn - Chemicals ¥11.8bn - Precision cleaning ¥8.5bn The remainder is mainly facilities and UPW supply contracts. Across the group, recurring and consumable revenue (chemicals, maintenance, supply contracts, cleaning) makes up a majority of sales. Facilities revenue is the cyclical layer. Kurita has no material licensing or subscription revenue in the software sense. Its digital services (such as predictive diagnostics) are bundled into service contracts. **Value-chain position.** Kurita sits between component suppliers (membranes, ion-exchange resins, pumps, instrumentation, many bought from DuPont, Toray, Nitto and others) and end users. It adds value through process design, proprietary chemical formulations, ultra-trace analytics, and operation of installed assets. In semiconductors it is a Tier-1 facility contractor to fab owners, often working alongside general contractors and fab EPC firms. **Customer types and end markets:** - Semiconductor foundries and memory makers (Japan, Korea, Taiwan, China, the U.S. and Europe), plus display and component makers. - Petroleum refining and petrochemicals, steel, pulp and paper, power, automotive, food and beverage, and pharmaceuticals. - Commercial buildings (air-conditioning water). - Municipal and public customers in North America, via Kurita America's equipment business. In Japan, Kurita withdrew from public construction works in 2006. **Independent characterization.** Kurita is best understood as two linked businesses with different economics: **Semiconductor water infrastructure:** cyclical facility orders followed by sticky, high-margin service annuities. **Global industrial chemicals and service business:** about 60% of sales, GDP-linked, with margins rising as CSV (value-priced) offerings replace commodity chemicals. The investment case depends on two things. Can installed-base growth from the 2024–2027 fab construction wave turn into service revenue? And can project execution avoid the kind of overruns seen in FY2027?