Market Background

Rubber Hose Production up 5.4% for First Half on Back of Strong Demand for High-Pressure Hoses

Rubber hose operations in Japan have achieved growth in both production volume and revenues for the first half of calendar 2018, according to new results compiled by the Japan Rubber Hose Manufacturers Association. In terms of the volume of new rubber, production was up 5.4 percent year-on-year to end at 19,111 tons for the half, while shipment value rose 2.8...

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Revenue From Construction Equipment Shipments Projected to Rise 1% for 2019

Japan’s construction equipment industry is expected to achieve healthy performance for fiscal 2018–2019, according to a demand forecast recently compiled by the Japan Construction Equipment Manufacturers Association (CEMA). This continues a trend from both fiscal 2017 and early fiscal 2018 wherein sluggish domestic demand has been offset by stronger demand overseas, leading to higher revenues on the whole. Alongside this...

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First-Half Rubber Belt Production Down 2% Year-on-Year

Japan’s total production of rubber belts for January–June declined 2 percent year-on-year to 13,169 tons, according to a set of rubber and resin belt statistics recently released by the Japan Belting Manufacturers Association. Factors behind this included a fall in domestic demand for conveyor belts and flat demand, both domestically and in exports, for transmission belts. Looking specifically at rubber...

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JRW Survey: Industry Leaders Raise Concerns Over Raw Material Price Hikes, Labor Shortages

Japan Rubber Weekly recently conducted a survey on business conditions in the rubber and resin industries, targeting 157 major domestic product manufacturers. With 115 of these companies sending back answers, the response rate was 73.2 percent. The results showed that while business conditions are fair, respondents are concerned by labor shortages, surging logistics costs and trends to raw material prices....

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JSR Posts Major Sales Increase for First Quarter on Back of Strong Elastomer Demand

Synthetic rubber manufacturer JSR Corp. (TYO:4185) has posted sales of 122.26 billion yen ($1.1 billion) for the first quarter of fiscal 2018, up 20.9 percent from the same quarter last year. Meanwhile, the company’s operating profit was down 9.6 percent year-on-year to 11.48 billion yen, with its net profit falling 5.4 percent to 8.94 billion yen. Sales at JSR’s elastomers...

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Rubber Industry Sees Solid Demand for Raw Materials in First Half

The first half of calendar 2018 has seen robust demand for raw materials in the rubber industry. This comes on the back of recovering applications in automobiles and tires – the main sources of demand for the materials – as well as strong demand for semiconductors. Due to a rise in the cost of crude oil, prices have increased for...

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