Corporate History

In 1960, the 14th year after the company was founded, the name was changed from Taihei Corporation to Shinsho Corporation. The Chinese character “shin” is the first character for the name of Kobe, and thus symbolizes Kobe Steel. The character “sho” means “trade.” The new name reflected the company’s ambition to become the core trading company of the Kobe Steel Group. In 1961, Shinsho Corporation listed in the Second Section of the Tokyo Stock Exchange. Seven years later in 1968, it listed in the First Section of the Tokyo Stock Exchange.

Concurrently, Shinsho Corporation began its overseas expansion in earnest. The Shinsho American Corporation was established in 1966. Sales for the first fiscal year of operation reached $1.19 million.

Form the late 1980s into the 1990s, we vastly expanded our global network. Thai Escorp Ltd. was established in 1988 at a time when Thailand was experiencing rapid development. The company has continued to achieve notable results in such fields as welding material supply, as well as copper tube and aluminum material supply to Japanese-owned air conditioner manufacturers. We also established local branches in Malaysia in 1987, Singapore in 1990, and Australia in 1996.