San Francisco / U.S.A.
The San Francisco Office
San Francisco lies on the central northern coast of California. With a population of 800,000 people the city is probably smaller than most people realize. San Francisco, one of the most European of North American cities, is often referred to as the Most Beautiful City in North America. Well-known tourist spots include the Golden Gate Bridge, Napa Valley wineries and Pebble Beach. An hour south of San Francisco by freeway is Silicon Valley, the center of excellence in information technology. In addition to financial and knowledge-based industries, San Francisco plays an important role supporting Silicon Valley.
Marubeni America Corporation's San Francisco Office is located in the center of the city's financial district and conducts business in the areas of information technology, investment, iron and steel products, metal resources, food stuffs and textiles. The San Francisco Office currently employs 22 staff and they are working at the cutting-edge of their industry. This office shows great promise of expansion.
Peter Maguire began working at the San Francisco Office in November 1993, starting in the Industrial Machinery Dept. and then transferring to the Iron & Steel Dept. in April 1996. Mr. Maguire handles iron and steel products and industrial materials such as activated carbon for water purification and graphite blocks used to manufacture susceptors for silicon chip manufacturers.
Mr. Maguire joined Marubeni in March 1986 in Tokyo after studying Japanese at Sophia University in Tokyo for almost three years. He spent more than seven years in the Information Systems Dept. where he designed and maintained computer systems for Marubeni's overseas offices in Asia and South America. This work gave him a good knowledge-base of the workings of Japanese shosha (general trading houses) and their unique way of doing business. He feels very fortunate to have been transferred to the San Francisco Office, where he became more involved in the sales related part of the shosha. Being fluent in spoken and written Japanese allows him to work easily with clients in both the United States and Japan.
His favorite part of the job is working with people in both the United States and Japan, providing valuable goods and services in order to make products that ordinary people can enjoy on a daily basis.
One traditional iron and steel product used in the Bay Area is tin plate and tin-free steel for three-piece food cans. Tomatoes grown and canned in California account for about 80 percent of the US output, while peaches make up about 65 percent of the US canned peach market. This makes for a huge market for tin plate and tin-free steel. It is important to follow not only the steel trends for this business, but also the progress of crop growth and weather patterns, so that Marubeni can provide the customer with the correct quantity of steel for their needs. The timely delivery of steel is especially important, because there is a window of only a few days to can the product after it has been picked. This keeps the excitement level high in the cool, foggy San Francisco summer.
Established:1956
Main Businesses and Products:
IT, metal, electronics, food, telecommunications
Trading Region: Worldwide
Employees: 22
Marubeni quarterly magazine "shosha" VOL.65 (October,2000)
