Ube Industries Ltd. (TYO:4208) has decided to build a new plant to manufacture Upilex polyimide film at its Ube Chemical Factory in Yamaguchi Prefecture. This comes as the film faces growing demand for use in the circuit boards of OLED smartphone displays and LCD TVs. Scheduled to begin trial operation in October 2024, the new facility will be equipped with...
With automotive production bouncing back from the lows brought by COVID-19, rubber-related auto parts too have seen a recovery in both production and shipment numbers. Looking at Japan’s automotive production figures from last year, it is apparent that production volume started to fall by double digits year-on-year in April 2020, marking a trend that then continued for some time. Following...
Bridgestone Corp. (TYO:5108) has announced plans to restructure production activities at its Iwata Plant, one of several Diversified Products plants the company has in Japan. Coming as part of the global expense and cost structure review established under Bridgestone’s 2021–2023 medium-term management plan, this initiative will see production of precision components for office equipment relocated from the Iwata Plant to...
Bridgestone Europe NV/SA has started discussions with stakeholders with the aim of closing its Bethune plant in France. The plant is currently used to manufacture passenger car tires. This comes as the Bethune plant finds itself in an increasingly difficult competitive environment. Business profitability in the European passenger car tire market has fallen in recent years; then there is the...
Mitsui Chemicals Inc. (TYO:4183) and Prime Polymer Co. Ltd. announced on June 11 that they have begun business operations at Mitsui Prime Advanced Composites Europe BV (ACE), a joint venture that also includes Mitsui & Co. Ltd. (TYO:8031). Located within Chemelot Industrial Park in the Netherlands, ACE is the Mitsui Chemicals Group’s first polypropylene (PP) compounding plant in Europe. The...
Japanese companies with Chinese bases in the rubber sector look like they will still need some more time to get these bases back to where they were before COVID-19. A survey carried out by Japan Rubber Weekly provided some details here. China is starting to work toward economic recovery, making moves such as lifting the urban lockdown on virus epicenter...
