A mission comprising 13 representatives of the All India Rubber Industries Association (AIRIA; Mohinder Gupta, President) visited Japan February 8 through 13, calling on five Japanese rubber and synthetic rubber manufacturers, as well as raw materials merchants and others. They also made a courtesy call on February 12 to the Japan Rubber Manufacturers Association (JRMA), and were greeted by other...
The Japan Automobile Tyre Manufacturers Association (JATMA) announced that automobile tire production volume (in terms of rubber volume) in 2015 (January–December) in Japan was 1.06 million tons. This marks a 6 percent year-on-year decrease and the fourth consecutive year of negative growth. Looking at product category, production volume was down year-on-year across the board. Truck and bus tires decreased by...
The efforts of business activities to date are beginning to come to fruition for Toyoda Gosei Co. Ltd. (TYO:7282), Toyota Motor Group’s sole manufacturer of rubber and resin automotive components. Speaking of his ambition in a recent interview, President Naoki Miyazaki said that 2016 is a year in which Toyoda Gosei is looking to make full-scale developments. However, Miyazaki said,...
Kawaguchi Chemical (TYO:4361) recently announced financial results for fiscal 2015 (Dec. 1, 2014–Nov. 30, 2015). Net sales were down 2 percent year-on-year to 6.6 billion yen ($57.57 million) on slower rubber chemicals sales. The company is targeting net sales of 7.0 billion yen in 2016. Kawaguchi Chemical provides organic rubber chemicals for tires and various rubber products.
Ube Industries (TYO:4208) announced results for the first nine months of the fiscal year ending March 2016, showing sales of 482 billion yen ($4.28 billion), increasing 2 percent. Profit on operations was 31.3 billion yen, an increase of 118 percent. Ordinary income was 30.1 billion yen, up 117 percent. Net profit grew substantially by 275 percent to 19.2 billion yen.
According to automobile production numbers for 2015 compiled by the Japan Automobile Manufacturers Association (JAMA), total production for four-wheel vehicles was 9.28 million units, a 5-percent year-on-year decline that marked the first drop in two years. 5.05 million vehicles were produced to serve domestic demand, down 9 percent and marking the first fall in four years.
