Mitsui Chemicals’ ethylene-propylene rubber (EPDM) plant operations remained at a high level in fiscal 2021. In the first half of the year, from April to September, the supply-demand situation remained tight. Sales remained steady, however, in the second half from October to March, despite being affected to a small extent by the shortage of semiconductors and reduced car production. The...
Michelin has become the sole owner of Royal Lestari Utama (RLU) after purchasing the 51 percent of the joint venture previously held by Barito Pacific Group. RLU is a project initiated in 2015 by Michelin and Indonesian partners that aims to combine sustainable natural rubber cultivation and forest conservation on approximately 70,000 hectares in Jambi, Sumatra, and 18,000 hectares in...
Zeon recently revised its basic CSR policy, which is the basic approach to its corporate activities, and established a new basic sustainability policy effective July 1. The company aims to achieve the 2030 vision of its medium-term management plan by developing its CSR management of the past into a sustainability management with a broader perspective. Under its basic CSR policy,...
Denka expects global demand for chloroprene rubber (CR) to keep up growth of several percent per year going forward. And as part of this, dry CR products are focused on the shift toward electric vehicles (EVs), with an understanding that this will see some products rise while others fall. Elsewhere, belts and other such industrial applications are expected to maintain...
Denka’s chloroprene rubber (CR) business saw full production and sales in fiscal 2021. Demand inquiries remained strong, and sales for automotive, industrial, and adhesive applications were all favorable. Although Denka Performance Elastomer, the company’s U.S. base, was forced to suspend production in September and October as a raw material supplier sustained damages by a hurricane, it started up in November...
Sumitomo Rubber Industries, in collaboration with partners including Tohoku University, Kanazawa University and Saitama University, has succeeded in an experiment leading to the improvement of natural rubber varieties. The experiment identified the section of a natural rubber synthesizing enzyme that is important for controlling the chain length of natural rubber. By incorporating the section into an enzyme derived from tomatoes,...
