JSR Corp. (TYO:4185) President Mitsunobu Koshiba is hoping to see stable earnings for his company’s elastomer business. But to achieve this, he recently told Japan Rubber Weekly, JSR will need to take its marketing efforts for the sector onto the global stage. Koshiba said that his company’s elastomer business still has its sales largely directed at the Japanese domestic tire...
Shin-Etsu Chemical Co. Ltd. (TYO:4063) recently announced that it will raise its polyvinyl chloride (PVC) price by at least 15 yen per kilogram for shipments from Jan. 21 onward. Explaining the decision, a company representative said that crude oil and naphtha prices are expected to continue increasing from autumn onward, and that costs are also rising for utilities, transport and...
Osaka Soda Co. Ltd. (TYO:4046) will raise the price of its Epichlomer line of epichlorohydrin rubber by 35 yen ($0.31) per kilogram for shipments beginning Jan. 10, 2018. The company said that it has tried cost-cutting to deal with rising raw material prices. However, tighter epichlorohydrin supplies relative to demand, coupled with increasing prices for monomers and other primary ingredients,...
Sumitomo Riko Co. Ltd. (TYO:5191) is gearing up to grow its business for general industrial products in non-automotive sectors. These plans include starting overseas production of water-developable flexographic printing plates and increasing the company’s overseas production bases for anti-vibration rubber for use in railcars. Sumitomo Riko will establish a production base for water developable flexographic printing plates in Turin, Italy,...
Molykote, a special lubricant produced and sold by Dow Corning Toray Co. Ltd., will celebrate its 70th year in 2018. Unlike regular lubricants, Molykote can withstand a large range of high and low temperatures while preventing wear and tear. It is used in automobile pistons and brakes to mitigate friction and to control vibrations, noise and squeaking. As a more...
Zeon Corp. (TYO:4205) has established a new local distributor for high-performance materials in California’s Silicon Valley. The company, Zeon Specialty Materials Inc. (ZSM), moved into its offices in October and will begin operating in January. The new entity will take over North American sales operations from fellow Zeon Group company Zeon Chemicals LP, which is based in Kentucky. More specifically,...
