The Japan Glove Manufacturers Association has published its 2022 glove sales volume statistics for the Japanese domestic market. Household glove sales in 2022 remained flat at 83.19 million pairs, down 1% from the previous year. Only rubber gloves grew by 6% year-on-year, but none of the categories recovered to the 2019 levels prior to the coronavirus pandemic. In 2020, sales...
According to the Feb. 14 report on rubber product production and shipments published by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI), the total value of rubber product shipments in 2022 (January-December) was 2.3 trillion yen ($22.72 billion), up 5.1% from the previous year, marking the second consecutive year of year-on-year growth. By product category, the value of rubber products...
Demand for rolls for high-performance films has been strong, and along with the recovery of market conditions, it has been steadily increasing recently to become a driving force for rolls as a whole. Driven by the spread of telework and the shift to electric vehicles (EVs), demand for polarizing film for LCDs and separator film for lithium-ion batteries has been...
The past year has seen concerns about geopolitical risks come to the fore in striking fashion. This has included Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and China’s lockdown, with both shaking not only the rubber industry but also the global economy in a major way. And the year also brought more specific difficulties for the rubber industry: on top of a slow...
The past year has seen concerns about geopolitical risks come to the fore in striking fashion. This has included Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and China’s lockdown, with both shaking not only the rubber industry but also the global economy in a major way. And the year also brought more specific difficulties for the rubber industry: on top of a slow...
Are we on the way toward a full-fledged recovery in demand? As rubber and plastic product manufacturers continue to announce their first half (April-September) earnings results for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2023, a recovery trend becomes visible in the automobile industry, the main source of demand. With the global economic outlook uncertain, it remains to be seen whether...
