Tokai Carbon Co. Ltd. (TYO:5301) has announced an increase of 15 percent over its current sales prices for fine-carbon, special-graphite products beginning with deliveries on July 1. The company explained that the price hike stems from a sharp decline in the special-graphite market caused by drastic changes in the balance of supply and demand. This situation has hurt profitability. Tokai...
Zeon Corp. (TYO:4205) received the fiscal 2016 Society of Polymer Science Japan (SPSJ) Award for Outstanding Achievement in Polymer Science and Technology. The award was given at the 66th SPSJ annual meeting to Zeon for its product Quintac, an asymmetric styrene-isoprene-styrene (SIS) block copolymer. The annual meeting included an award ceremony and acceptance speeches. Zeon designed Quintac by deliberately offsetting...
Appointed as the new president of Kuraray Plastics Co. Ltd. this past March, Takashi Nakajima says that his role is to keep a balance between offense and defense. And on this basis, Nakajima plans to expand Kuraray Plastics’ compound business while also finding new applications and contents for the company’s existing products. Founded in 1905, Kuraray Plastics marks its 112th...
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...
