Sales are strong for Zeon Corp.’s (TYO:4205) hydrogenated nitrile rubber (HNBR) Zetpol elastomers with improved heat resistance, which can withstand temperatures 20 degrees Celsius higher than conventional Zetpol products. Along with the increased use of dry products in gasket and oil seal applications, the use of latex products as treating agents for core wires in timing belts is also growing....
Materials
Asahi Kasei Publicly Unveils Fifth-Generation S-SBR at IRC 2016
Asahi Kasei Corp. (TYO:3407) publicly unveiled its fifth-generation solution styrene butadiene rubber (S-SBR) during the Rubber & Elastomer Technical Exhibition at IRC 2016 Kitakyushu. The company exhibited XF and XB grades from the new series. Although they had been shown to engineers at conferences, this is the first time for the company to exhibit the grades publicly. Deliveries are already...
Tokai Carbon Increases Price for Carbon Black as Oil Continues to Rise
Tokai Carbon Co. Ltd. (TYO:5301) has increased the price of its carbon black products by 3 yen per kilogram. The change was implemented for deliveries beginning Nov. 1, applying to all varieties of carbon black. A release from the company stated that the price of raw oil used in carbon black has been rising incrementally since bottoming out at the...
JSR Increases S-SBR Sales by 15% in Second Quarter
JSR Corp. (TYO:4185) has seen an improvement in the sales of its solution styrene butadiene rubber (S-SBR), with sales volume in the second quarter (July–September) of fiscal 2016 rising around 15 percent over that of the same quarter last year. While the company’s elastomer division has seen a second-quarter fall in revenue and profit on account of a strong yen...
Natural Rubber Import Volume Up Nearly 9% in August
Japan’s import volume of natural rubber in August increased 8.8 percent year-on-year, while the import value decreased 19 percent year-on-year, according to data compiled by The Rubber Trade Association of Japan based on the Ministry of Finance’s Trade Statistics of Japan. This represents the first year-on-year increase in six months for import volume, but the 11th consecutive month of year-on-year...
JSR Downwardly Revises Projected Business Results for 2016
Major Japanese synthetic rubber manufaturer JSR Corp. (TYO:4185) has downwardly revised its projected business results for fiscal 2016. Projected sales were adjusted to 367 billion yen ($3.51 billion), down 7.1 percent from 395 billion yen in the previous forecast. Operating income was revised to 26 billion yen, down 25.7 percent from 35 billion yen, while ordinary income is now projected...
