Tokai Carbon’s results for the first nine months (January-September) of the fiscal year ending December 31, 2022, showed net sales of 246.33 billion yen ($1.76 billion), up 33.1 percent year-on-year; operating income of 28.02 billion yen, up 58.6 percent; ordinary income of 32.13 billion yen, up 83.1 percent; and net income of 16.12 billion yen, up 68.6 percent. In the...
Materials
Ube’s Synthetic Rubber Division Increases Sales with Price Increases
Ube posted first half (April-September) results for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2023, showing sales of 244.78 billion yen ($1.75 billion), down 20.2 percent year-on-year; operating income of 8.52 billion yen, down 55.4 percent; ordinary loss of 1.83 billion yen (against a profit of 17.90 billion yen in the same period last year); and net loss of 341 million...
Dow Chemical Japan to Raise Prices of Polyurethane Raw Materials
Dow Chemical Japan announced on November 9 that it will raise the prices of raw materials for polyurethane starting from deliveries on December 1. The products subject to the price increase and the range of the price increase 20 percent or more from the current price for polyols (North American and European origin) and polyurethane system products (for the automotive...
Lanxess Certifies Carbon Footprint of Its PA6, PBT & Glass Fibers
German chemical company Lanxess has obtained certified carbon footprint values for the base resins used in its Durethan polyamide (PA) and Pocan polyester (PBT) products. The company will now be able to provide these values to its customers in the plastic processing sector. Certification here was carried out by an accredited certification body, and covers not only PA6 precursor caprolactam...
Sumitomo Rubber Focuses on Enzymes in Push to Improve Natural Rubber Supply Through Selective Breeding
Sumitomo Rubber has been working to unravel the mechanisms behind the biosynthesis of natural rubber. The company’s efforts here come as part of a push to improve the yield of the Para rubber tree, which would in turn facilitate a steady supply of natural rubber and improvements to tire performance. Natural rubber is an essential raw material in tires, where...
Asahi Kasei to Raise BR and SBR Prices for Shipments From October
Asahi Kasei announced on September 22 that it will raise the price of polybutadiene rubber (BR) and styrene-butadiene rubber (SBR, oil and non-oil) by 30 yen ($0.21) or more per kilogram for shipments from October 1. The company said that the recent sharp rise in crude oil prices and the rapid depreciation of the yen have caused the costs of...