Zeon Kasei Co. Ltd., a subsidiary of Zeon Corp. (TYO:4205), has commenced operations at its powder slush compound (PSC) plant in Mexico. The new plant, located in the fully equipped Las Colinas Industrial Park of San Luis Potosi City, has easy access to North America for Japanese and European automakers operating in Mexico. The plant’s first line has the capacity...
Sumitomo Riko Co. Ltd. (TYO:5191) has announced that its sales for the fiscal year ending March 2018 is expected to reach a record high of 425 billion yen ($3.9 billion), up 0.6 percent year-on-year. Additionally, the company expects that its operating profit will rise by 6.6 percent to 14.5 billion yen and that its net profit will jump by 25.1...
Mitsui Chemicals Inc. (TYO:4183) will expand production capacity for thermoplastic elastomer product Milastomer to 60,000 tons by 2020. This figure represents a 30-percent increase compared to 2017’s volume. Milastomer is a cross-linked olefin-based thermoplastic elastomer, referred to as thermoplastic vulcanite (TPV). The material’s primary ingredients are ethylene propylene (EP) rubber and polypropylene (PP). Compared to other soft resins, Milastomer has...
Covestro Japan Ltd. has announced that Sumika Covestro Urethane Co. Ltd.’s Niihama plant received a special award for excellence in safety from the Japan Chemical Industry Association (JCIA) in May. The award recognizes the plant’s twentieth year of zero shutdowns and zero operation halting disasters, an achievement the plant marked in June 2016. The facility continues to hold a global...
Asahi Rubber Inc. (TYO:5162) has released its business results for the fiscal year ending March 2017. Orders were strong for the company’s main products such as Asa Color LED, RFID and rubber used for tags, medical equipment and table tennis rackets. Profitability also increased due to cost cutting and higher factory productivity, with record highs on a consolidated basis reported...
JSR Corp. (TYO:4185) has identified solution styrene butadiene rubber (S-SBR) as a lucrative growth area in JSR20i9, the company’s medium-term business plan for fiscal 2017 to 2019. JSR hopes to achieve the plan’s goals through plant construction, greater product sales and full-capacity operations at new lines. One focus of the plan is the release of new S-SBR products with better...
