Showa Shell and Mitsubishi Oil, Japan's fifth and sixth biggest refiners, announced in February that they are to merge.

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Mr. McCoy is a writer and English language instructor at the Showa Boston Institute for Language and Culture in Boston.

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Solar Frontier, a Japanese company that is part of oil company Showa Shell, built a 900-megawatt factory and began shipment from there in early 2011.

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Hitachi, if it goes ahead, will be following Showa Denko, which announced in June that it would increase by 50% its output in China of alloys used in magnets for hybrids.

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To safeguard continuing access to rare earths, and to ensure production capability, Hitachi Metal has planned by 2013, and TDK in cooperation with Showa Denko have planned by 2014, to manufacture the magnets in China in (presumably obligatory) joint ventures with China partners.

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