The Japanese Rubber Workers Union Confederation (JRWUC) has largely completed its spring labor offensive, and unions have submitted wage demands at most large rubber manufacturers. According to the JRWUC, 45 out of 58 unions have submitted their wage demands, and despite discrepancies between sectors such as tires, automobile parts, and industrial goods, wage increase demands are trending downward from the...
Bridgestone Corp. (TYO:5108) has received the Environmental Award presented by Honda Motor Co. Ltd. (TYO:7267) to honor select suppliers. It is the first time that Bridgestone has received the award. The Environment Award is one of five categories including Product Quality under which Honda confers honors to express gratitude to suppliers that excel. Bridgestone received the award in the Environment...
Nitta Corporation of America (NCA), the U.S. manufacturing and sales subsidiary of Nitta Corp. (TYO:5186), has decided to construct a second plant to add more production facilities. In addition to fabricating light conveyor belts made from plastic, the second plant will add facilities for producing flat belts. NCA will invest around $7.6 million in the project, with construction commencing this...
President Yoichi Ohno of Ohno Rubber Industrial Co. Ltd., a maker of automobile rubber spare parts, recently unveiled a policy for actively developing new markets and new products in areas that the company has not been active in up till now. Proud of its 75-year history, the expansion into new areas including plastics products and engineering plastics as well as special...
Production and shipping volumes of general rubber sheets in Japan are each trending at an annual scale of 20,000 tons. Although market conditions have slumped for the fields of construction and civil engineering, which were major sources of demand for 2015, there still remains a firm undertone in demand with the return of domestic manufacturing. This is owing to a...
The sneaker craze may very well have hit a peak in 2015. New Balance Japan Inc., a key driver of this high demand, saw 2015 (January–December) sales go up almost 30 percent over the previous year, with lifestyle shoes rising more than 40 percent. President Tomoo Tomita called 2015 a year in which his company benefitted from the sneaker craze....
