The category-based shipping volume of synthetic rubber for January to March increased to 434,413 tons, up 4.4 percent from the same period a year earlier, according to the Japan Rubber Manufacturers Association (JRMA). Following the July–September and October–December quarters, this marks a year-on-year growth in volume for the third straight term in a row. Domestic shipping volume grew by 2.3...
Zeon Corp. (TYO:4205) subsidiary Tokyo Zairyo Co. Ltd. has announced its results for the year ending March 2017. The raw material trading company has reported 87.17 billion yen ($769.82 million) in sales, 1.94 billion yen in ordinary profit and 1.44 billion yen in net income. While sales were down 0.9 percent from a prior year, ordinary profit and net income...
Chemical maker Mitsubishi Chemical Corp. has developed a new grade of Tefabloc, a thermoplastic copolyester elastomer (TPC). Tefabloc has TPC’s unique high degree of resistance to heat, oil and abrasion while excelling in thermal adhesiveness with hard materials such as polycarbonate and acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS) resin. The product has been widely adopted in the two-color molding field, primarily for...
Tokai Carbon Co. Ltd. (TYO:5301) has announced an increase of 15 percent over its current sales prices for fine-carbon, special-graphite products beginning with deliveries on July 1. The company explained that the price hike stems from a sharp decline in the special-graphite market caused by drastic changes in the balance of supply and demand. This situation has hurt profitability. Tokai...
Zeon Corp. (TYO:4205) received the fiscal 2016 Society of Polymer Science Japan (SPSJ) Award for Outstanding Achievement in Polymer Science and Technology. The award was given at the 66th SPSJ annual meeting to Zeon for its product Quintac, an asymmetric styrene-isoprene-styrene (SIS) block copolymer. The annual meeting included an award ceremony and acceptance speeches. Zeon designed Quintac by deliberately offsetting...
Appointed as the new president of Kuraray Plastics Co. Ltd. this past March, Takashi Nakajima says that his role is to keep a balance between offense and defense. And on this basis, Nakajima plans to expand Kuraray Plastics’ compound business while also finding new applications and contents for the company’s existing products. Founded in 1905, Kuraray Plastics marks its 112th...
