Sumitomo Rubber Industries Ltd. announced at a recent press conference that it is developing highly functional biomass materials for tires. Conventional rubber used in tires contains oil from fossil resource as a softener. The problem, however, is that the oil gradually leaches out of the rubber, causing tires to harden. Sumitomo Rubber solved this problem by using plant-based oil as...
Zeon Corp., the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST) and the New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO) held a completion ceremony at Zeon’s plant for the world’s first mass-production of carbon nanotubes using the super-growth method developed by AIST. The plant goes online in November 2015. The super-growth method offers the benefits of high-speed and...
Denka Company Limited completed it acquisition of the chloroprene rubber (CR) business of E.I. Dupont de Nemours and Company (Dupont) on Oct. 31, 2015. In December 2014, the companies announced that Dupont would sell its CR business to Denka Performance Elastomer (DPE; capital: $62 million), a joint venture between Mitsui & Co. Ltd. and Denka, for between 10 and 14...
Ube Industries Ltd. recorded increased sales and profit for the first six months (April-Sept.) of fiscal 2015. Sales were up 5 percent year-on-year to 323.3 billion yen ($2.62 billion), operating income was up 230 percent to 20.5 billion yen ($166.4 million), and ordinary income was up 303 percent to 19.7 billion yen ($159.9 million). Profit attributable to owners of parent...
JSR Corp. increased solution styrene butadiene rubber (S-SBR) sales volume by 30 percent in the first half of the year through March. In addition to launching full-scale operations at its new S-SBR plant in Thailand, the company’s expansion into the large-scale middle range market contributed to the first-half increase, said Hayato Hirano, senior officer and director. JSR easily exceeded global market...
Kumho Polychem, a JSR Corp. group company producing ethylene propylene rubber (EPDM) in Korea, returned to profitability for the first half of the year. In addition to boosting sales volume, the company benefited from lower prices for the raw materials ethylene and propylene. In September, Kumho Polychem added 60,000 tons of annual production capacity, bringing its total to 210,000 tons. Although this additional capacity...
