Bando Chemical Industries Ltd. (TYO:5195) is bringing in special paid leave days for its employees to get vaccinated against COVID-19. By providing this paid leave, the transportation and conveyor belts manufacturer aims to reduce health risks from COVID-19 and help prevent its spread. However, the company will only recommend vaccination rather than require it, leaving it up to each individual...
Yokohama Rubber Co. Ltd. (TYO:5101) has made a donation to Chance for Children, a Japanese NPO that works to support the education of children from financially underserved backgrounds. With the tire company matching the donation coming from its Yokohama Magokoro Fund – an initiative funded by company employees – the total donation here comes to 500,000 yen ($4,570). Chance for...
Rubber sheets are on the road to recovery, with both production and shipments on the rise. With the market having been hit by COVID-19, figures for May 2020 slumped by more than 25 percent year-on-year; but the economy then started to recover in the following months, showing only a quite small year-on-year decline for October onward. And for the January–March...
Kato Sansho Co. Ltd. has worked with Ichinen Chemicals Co. Ltd. to develop One Bio, a series of biomass additives derived from plants. One Bio B-001 is an 80 percent plant-derived additive that can be simply mixed with polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP) – materials which make up around half of Japan’s plastics market – to raise the biomass content...
PJSC Nizhnekamskneftekhim (NKNK), Russia’s second largest synthetic rubber manufacturer, held an opening ceremony on May 26 for a new solution-polymerized styrene–butadiene rubber (S-SBR) plant. Incorporating technology and basic design from Japan’s ETIC Inc, it represents the Tatarstanian-based company’s first foray into S-SBR production. Among those present for the ceremony was the president of Tatarstan, Rustam Minnikhanov. With a production capacity...
Bridgestone Americas Inc. has announced that subsidiary Firestone Industrial Products LLC (FSIP) is set to boost its production capacity for air springs at a plant in Williamsburg, Kentucky. Total investment in this expansion is slated to come to $51 million, with construction to begin in the second quarter of this year and wrap up by the end of 2022. The...
