NOK Corp. (TYO:7240), a major manufacturer of oil seals, posted first quarter sales of 164.91 billion yen ($1.49 billion) for April–June, representing a year-on-year increase of 12.8 percent. NOK’s operating profit for the first quarter was 6.04 billion yen compared to 3.77 billion yen for the same period of the previous year. Ordinary income was 9.87 billion yen, representing a...
Plastics processing company Shin-Etsu Polymer Co. Ltd. (TYO:7970) achieved net sales of 18.98 billion yen ($172.27 million) for the first quarter of fiscal 2018 (April–June 2017), up 5.8 percent year-on-year. Shin-Etsu Polymer’s operating income for the first quarter of fiscal 2018 was 1.68 billion yen, up 2.3 percent year on year. The company achieved an ordinary income of 1.85 billion...
Nitta Corp. (TYO:5186) hosted a completion ceremony on July 11 for its consolidated U.S. subsidiary Nitta Corporation of America (NCA)’s second factory in Georgia, construction for which began in March 2016. The ceremony was attended by Nitta’s President Motonobu Nitta, Consul General of Japan in Atlanta Takashi Shinozuka, Chairman of Forsyth County Board of Commissioners Todd Levent and NCA’s employees....
Asahi Kasei Corp. (TYO:3407) has decided to increase its production capacity for solution-polymerized styrene-butadiene rubber (S-SBR) for fuel efficient tires. The increase will take place at the company’s Singapore subsidiary Asahi Kasei Synthetic Rubber Singapore. Annual capacity will increase by 30,000 tons, raising the total production capacity in Singapore to 130,000 tons per year. The additional production of S-SBR is...
Figures compiled by the Carbon Black Association show that 43,271 tons of carbon black were shipped in Japan for the month of May. This marks a 0.2 percent year-on-year increase and the fifth consecutive monthly increase. With regard to carbon black for use in rubber, shipments rose 1.4 percent for general rubber, but fell 1.1 percent for tires, which account...
Zeon Corp.’s (TYO:4205) synthetic rubber business is doing well at present. As for specialty rubber not used in tires specifically, rising operation rates of oil wells thanks to renewed shale gas production have been a boon for hydrogenated nitrile butadiene rubber (HNBR) and nitrile rubber (NBR). Zeon is opening the Asia Technical Support Laboratory (ATSL) in Singapore this month to...
