Mitsui Chemicals Inc. (TYO:4183) recently released its business results for fiscal 2018. The company’s overall sales for the period totaled 1.48 trillion yen ($13.47 billion), up 11.6 percent year-on-year. Operating profit was 93.43 billion yen, down 9.7 percent year-on-year; ordinary profit was 102.97 billion yen, down 6.6 percent; and net profit was 76.12 billion yen, up 6.3 percent. Mitsui Chemicals’...
Market Background
Nitta Achieves Year-on-Year Increase to Belt, Rubber Product Sales for 2018
Nitta Corp. (TYO:5186) recently posted its results for fiscal 2018, revealing a total of 89.17 billion yen in annual sales – up by 22.2 percent year-on-year. On the profit side of the equation, the company made 5.66 billion yen in operating income, up 16.4 percent year-on-year; 11.47 billion yen in ordinary income, down 0.3 percent; and 8.97 billion yen in...

JSR to Switch up Top Management With New Positions, New President
JSR Corp. (TYO:4185) announced on March 14 that it intends to restructure its top management, having made a decision on this at a board of directors meeting earlier that day. Managing Officer Eric Johnson, 57, has been selected to fill the newly created role of CEO. Meanwhile, Nobuo Kawahashi, 62 – currently an executive managing officer at JSR – was...
Showa Denko Posts Major Increase to Sales and Income, Strong Propylene Results
Showa Denko KK (TYO:4004) recently revealed that it achieved an increase to both sales revenue and income for calendar 2018. The company posted sales of 992.14 billion yen ($8.97 billion) for the year, up by 27.1 percent over figures from 2017. Meanwhile, operating income was up 131.6 percent year-on-year to reach just over 180 billion yen, with ordinary income up...
Kuraray Posts Drop in Profits for 2018 Despite Significant Increase to Sales
Kuraray Co. Ltd. (TYO:3405) recently posted its full-year results for 2018, showing a significant increase to sales but a decrease in all profit metrics. While the company’s sales rose by 16.3 percent year-on-year to reach almost 603 billion yen ($5.45 billion), its operating profit fell 13.8 percent to 65.79 billion yen, with ordinary profit down 17.6 percent to 61.17 billion...

Tokai Carbon Positions Carbon Black Business as Revenue Base in New Medium-Term Plan
Tokai Carbon Co. Ltd. (TYO:5301) has positioned its carbon black business as a major base of revenue within T-2021, a new medium-term management plan set to run from 2019 to 2021. Under this plan, Tokai Carbon’s carbon black business is projected to generate 124 billion yen for 2021, up from a 115.3 billion projection for 2019. Operating profit from the...