Materials

Operating Profit Up on Lower Revenue in First Quarter: Sumitomo Riko

Sumitomo Riko released its financial results for the first quarter (April–June 2025) of the fiscal year ending March 31, 2026. The company recorded sales of 154.78 billion yen ($1.05 billion), a 1.8% decline compared to the same period last year. However, operating profit rose by 14.5% to 9.71 billion yen, while net profit declined slightly by 2.7% to 5.76 billion...

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Sumitomo Rubber Introduces Circular Carbon Black in Racing Tires

Sumitomo Rubber has announced the adoption of circular carbon black in some of its racing tires, marking a significant step in the company’s circular economy initiative known as Towanowa. This marks the company’s first application of resource-circulated carbon black in tire production. The new racing tires were used in the GT300 class of the 2025 Autobacs Super GT Round 4...

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Zeon Develops Hydrophilic Polymer for Winter Tires

Zeon has developed Nipol BR1300, a hydrophilic polymer for winter tires, and began commercial production in May at its Tokuyama Plant in Shunan City, Yamaguchi Prefecture. Developed with a polybutadiene rubber backbone, this polymer enhances the affinity of tire rubber materials with water to an unprecedented level....

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Rubber Sheet Special Feature: Irumagawa Rubber Boosts Sales Efficiency to Secure New Projects

Irumagawa Rubber’s rubber sheet business for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2025, recorded lower revenue and profit compared to the previous year. “Specialty fluororubber sheets and products for specific users remained weak. While general-purpose rubber sheets performed relatively steadily, they couldn’t offset the declines, resulting in overall performance below last year’s levels,” the company said. Demand trends showed that...

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Rubber Sheet Special Feature: Tigers Polymer Sees Rising Sales of Fluororubber Sheets

Tigers Polymer’s rubber sheet business for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2025, reported higher revenue but lower profit compared to the previous year. “Price revisions last year increased sales revenue, but volume remained flat. A positive factor was the upturn in fluororubber sheet sales in the second half,” the company said. General-purpose rubber sheets saw stagnant demand across nearly...

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Hanwa Invests in Thailand’s Tire Pyrolysis Recycling Business

Hanwa has acquired through its Thai subsidiary a stake in Pyro Energie, a tire pyrolysis recycling business in Thailand. Hanwa is a major Japanese trading company handling steel, food, and chemicals. The group already supplies tire chips, produced by shredding waste tires, as low-environmental-impact energy to Japanese companies. Overseas, pyrolysis is a prevalent recycling method, generating decomposition oil and carbon...

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