ZEON Chemicals Inc. signed a contract on September 7, 1997 to purchase the trade rights for acrylic rubber (ACM) from major petrochemistry enterprise ENICHEM. As of October 1, 1997, ZEON Chemicals is responsible for providing acrylic rubber to ENICHEM's customers.

By purchase of this trade right, ZCI is positioned to strengthen and develop its ACM core business, and at the same time, its parent company, ZEON, becomes a world-leading ACM manufacturer, further reinforcing its international leadership in oil-resistant special rubber.

1.	Acrylic rubber (abbreviation ACM)
	Excellent oil-resistance under high temperatures for use in hoses, gaskets, oil seals and packing for automobile parts. With the acquisition of trade rights for ENICHEM sales, the ZEON Group assumes a major share of the world ACM market.
2.	ENICHEM's conventional ACM business
	ENICHEM owns ACM production facilities in Ravenna, Italy, selling products in Europe and the U.S.A. (estimated annual production capacity: about 2,000 tons), and is one of the world's largest manufacturers of SBR general-purpose rubber.
3.	ACM business of the ZEON Group
	ZEON owns ACM production facilities in Kawasaki City, Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan, while ZCI maintains production facilities in Louisville, Kentucky, U.S.A., with combined annual production capacity of 7,500 tons. Since ZCI expanded production in 1996, it possesses sufficient capacity to cover the additional volume required to fulfull the trade rights purchased from ENICHEM.
4.	ZEON's oil-resistant special rubber business
	ZEON is a comprehensive synthetic rubber manufacturer, especially oil-resistant special rubbers (such as NBR, HNBR, ACM, epichlorohydrin rubber, special polyether rubber, which was first developed by the company, polynorbornene rubber and fluoric rubber) and commands about 35% of the world market, positioning it alongside Bayer A.G. of Germany as one of the top two manufacturers. ZEON owns production bases in Japan, the U.S.A. and Europe, in addition to two plants for carbon master-batch in Asia. ENICHEM chose to sell ACM trade rights to ZEON in recognition of ZEON's worldwide business in oil-resistant special rubber.
5.	ZCI
	(1) Legal name ZEON Chemical Incorporated (2) Headquarters 4100 Bells Lane, Louisville, Kentucky 40211, U.S.A. (3) Capital 36 million US dollars (100% investment from ZEON) (4) Established September 12, 1989 (5) Production bases Kentucky, Mississippi, Texas (6) Business focus Manufacture and sales of synthetic rubbers (7) Sales results Approximately 18 billion yen (1996)