Market Background

Year-on-Year Tire Production Down 16 Straight Months in March

Data compiled by the Japan Automobile Tyre Manufacturers Association shows that automobile tire and tube production volume in March totaled 89,547 tons. The 6.8-percent drop compared to the prior year marked the sixteenth straight year-on-year decline. The falloffs in year-on-year volume by product type were 14.6 percent for trucks and buses, 11.9 percent for small trucks and 4.6 percent for...

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March Automobile Production Volume Shows 1st Year-on-Year Increase in 4 Months

According to the Japan Automobile Manufacturers Association (JAMA), Japanese automotive manufacturers produced a total of 889,501 vehicles in March. This represents a 1.2 percent increase from the previous March, the first such year-on-year increase in four months. By automobile type, 757,605 passenger vehicles were produced, up 2.3 percent from the previous March, also a first year-on-year increase in four months....

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Trends in Japanese Industrial Rubber Wholesaling

The downturn in Japan’s automotive industry has had widespread impact among related manufacturing industries. The rubber manufacturing industry, centering on automotive tires, is also greatly influenced by strong or weak performance in the automobile manufacturing industry. However, a look at business performance by wholesalers of industrial rubber products across Japan from 2014 through 2015 shows that aggregate total sales by...

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Rubber Industry Feels Impact of Kumamoto Earthquakes – Special Report

Rubber manufacturers in the Japanese prefectures of Kumamoto and Oita have been greatly affected by a recent string of earthquakes that have centered on Kumamoto Prefecture, beginning with a foreshock at 9.26 p.m. on April 14. Bridgestone Corp. (TYO:5108) and NOK Corp. (TYO:7240) suspended operations at their respective manufacturing plants in Kumamoto Prefecture. Meanwhile, damage to locally based Tsuchiya Rubber...

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Rubber Goods Shipments Down 4% in February, Fall for Eight Straight Months

Shipment value of rubber goods in Japan declined in February by 4 percent year-on-year to 179.4 billion yen ($1.61 billion), sliding for the eighth consecutive month, according to Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI). Production volume of automobile tires were 12.11 million tires, down 5 percent on-year, marking the 15th consecutive month of year-on-year decreases. Meanwhile, the value...

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Amid Limelight on China, Japanese Rubber Industry Quietly Continues Expansion Into Europe

The period since the 1960s has seen a spurt of overseas expansion from Japanese companies involved in the rubber industry. This expansion has followed through from moving into Korea and Southeast Asia, centering on Taiwan, in the 1970s to North America in the 1980s and, since 2000, through into China and the ASEAN region. Recently, momentum has been gaining also...

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