Eighteen member companies of the Tire Battery Project, including Eneos Materials, have been developing the world’s first next-generation storage battery, the Tire Battery, which is created by recycling used tires. After 12 years of development and improvement, the companies will now begin demonstration testing of stationary products, namely street lights, equipped with the Tire Battery. The demonstration test will be...
Industry
Yokohama Rubber to Acquire Goodyear OTR Business
Yokohama Rubber will acquire the off-the-road tire (OTR) business for mining and construction vehicles of U.S.-based tire producer and distributor Goodyear. The acquisition is priced at $905 million and will be completed after receiving approval from the relevant authorities. Goodyear’s OTR business had sales of $678 million in fiscal 2023, EBITDA of $129 million, and an EBITDA margin of 19.0%....
Japanese Rubber Union Urges Promotion of Women
Gomu Rengo, the Japanese Rubber Workers’ Union Confederation, held a labor-management round-table conference to exchange lectures and information to promote the advancement of women. The meeting was attended by 57 representatives from labor and management, thereof 33 from the union side and 24 from the management side. In response to the 2007 revision of the Equal Employment Opportunity Law, Gomu...

Nitta Opens Satellite Office in Osaka
Nitta has on July 9 in Osaka opened a satellite office at Mitsui Link Lab Nakanoshima in Nakanoshima Qross, an international center for future medicine. Nakanoshima Qross is an industrialization base for future medicine established in 2019 by Osaka Prefecture and 21 private companies and others. It aims to promote the industrialization of cutting-edge future medicine that responds to advances...

Special Report on Logistics, Impact of 2024 Problem on Freight Rates and Transportation
The so-called 2024 Problem, which refers to a cap on overtime hours for truck drivers in Japan that came into effect in April and results in transportation capacity shortages, has reached the rubber-related industries as well. Not only are transportation costs continuing to rise, but the conditions demanded by shippers, such as shorter waiting times for cargo, are becoming even...
Japan Seismic Isolation Laboratory Launches Seismic Isolation Dynamic Performance Certification System
The Japan Seismic Isolation Laboratory has on July 1 launched a Dynamic Performance Certification System for Seismic Isolation, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism (MLIT) said. This system evaluates the performance of seismic isolation devices using a full-scale seismic isolation tester (E-Isolation), which boasts the world’s top-class accuracy, and is expected to further enhance the reliability of seismic...