July 14, 2010

Announcement

DIC Develops New Green Pigment for Use in High-Performance Color Filters

for LED Televisions

— Highest-Grade Pigment in the Market-Backed High-Performance G58 Series—

Tokyo, Japan—DIC Corporation today announced the development and launch of sample production of

FASTOGEN GREEN A310, the newest addition to its G58 series of green pigments for color filters.

DIC manufactures specialized organic pigments for liquid crystal display (LCD) panel color filters.1 In the area

of green pigments for this application, the Company defied conventional wisdom by using zinc, rather than

copper—traditionally the main source of green pigments—as the central metal in the chemical composition of its

unique C.I. Pigment Green G58 series of brominated zinc phthalocyanine green pigments (hereafter, “G58

series”), thereby achieving a marked increase in brightness. Moreover, by reducing the size of the particles, DIC

also succeeded in significantly improving contrast. High brightness ensures excellent picture quality even when

light emitted from the backlight is minimal. As a consequence, these pigments are currently used extensively in

energy-efficient televisions and are establishing a solid position as a groundbreaking achievement in the market

for pigments for LCD panel color filters.

The highest-grade pigment in the G58 series2, FASTOGEN GREEN A310, is distinguished by outstanding

brightness and contrast and was developed specifically for use in LCDs panels with light-emitting diode (LED)

backlights, a method of backlighting for LCD panels that has rapidly gained in popularity in recent years.

FASTOGEN GREEN A310 responds to modern concerns, delivering exceptional brightness and contrast3 that

make it possible to further reduce light emitted from the backlight, thereby facilitating the production of LED

televisions with minimal energy requirements and slimmer profiles. With consumers demanding ever-larger

LCDs, the market for color filters for LCD panels is forecast to continue expanding. The LED television market,

in particular, continues to see a high rate of growth, underscoring expectations that demand for FASTOGEN

GREEN A310 will continue rising.

Going forward, we will devote our best efforts to bolstering sales of FASTOGEN GREEN A310 and other

products in the G58 series. We currently project sales of pigments in the series to reach approximately ¥5.0

billion in 2012.

1. These high-performance pigments are dispersed in color resists, which are used to form primary-color pixels in color filters.

2. The G58 series consists of FASTOGEN GREEN A110 (basic), FASTOGEN GREEN A210 (high contrast) and FASTOGEN GREEN A310

(high brightness and high contrast).

3. FASTOGEN GREEN A310 delivers 5% higher brightness than FASTOGEN GREEN A110 and 15% higher brightness than conventional

green pigments in which copper is the central metal in the chemical composition. (Based on DIC estimates)

-Ends-

Corporate Communications Dept. DIC Building, 7-20, Nihonbashi 3-chome, Chuo-ku, Tokyo 103-8233, Japan TEL +81(3)5203-7838 FAX +81(3)3273-7586