For the 18th year in a row, The Yokohama Rubber Co., Ltd. has been included in the global stock index FTSE4Good Index Series, an achievement it says “reconfirms that the company’s ESG activities and disclosure practices meet the highest global standards.” The tyre, wheel and rubber products maker has also been selected to the FTSE Blossom Japan Index for the sixth straight year.
The third-generation Subaru Crosstrek went on sale in Japan in December 2022, and Sumitomo Rubber Industries shares that it is supplying its Falken Ziex ZE001 A/S as an original equipment tyre. The Crosstrek will wear the all-season Falken tyre in size 225/55R18 98V.
Bridgestone is adding a new brand to its tyre line-up in 2023 with the launch of the Newno range. Initially available in Japan only, Bridgestone promotes Newno as a “low fuel consumption tyre” that offers “safer and more secure mobility life for a wide range of customers” as well as “low environmental impact.” The Newno range debuts in Bridgestone’s domestic market on 1 February and will be available in 65 dimensions for 13- to 18-inch rim diameters.
Yokohama Rubber reports that the relocation to a new headquarters at the site of its Hiratsuka factory in Japan will commence 10 January 2023. The various head office departments will make the shift from Tokyo to Hiratsuka City in seven steps over the following two months, with the move complete by 6 March.
Israel’s Galileo Wheel Ltd., the firm behind the CupWheel tyre, and Japanese trading firm Marubeni Corporation have entered into a strategic partnership. As part of this partnership, Galileo reports that Marubeni has become a “significant stakeholder.” Marubeni will utilise its global sales and marketing network and become the distributor of CupWheel tyres in multiple geographic markets.
Yokohama will supply Advan racing tyres with 33 per cent sustainable material content as the control tyre for the Japanese Super Formula Championship from the 2023 season. The tyre supplier said work on the tyre for dry conditions is complete, while wet tyre development continues with a view to providing both to the series from next year. Yokohama says the tyres have demonstrated performance equivalent to that of the standard tyres used in Super Formula 2022 races.
The Yokohama Rubber Co., Ltd. has reported nine-month 2022 financial results showing record profitability. Despite a 23.6 per cent decline in operating profit to 45.3 billion yen, Yokohama reported a 24.2 per cent increase in business profit, which amounted to 46.1 billion yen (£281.579 million; 321.040 million; US$330.998 million); and a 33.7 per cent increase in sales revenue, to 615.8 billion yen (£3.761 billion; 4.288 billion euros; $4.421 billion).
Sumitomo Rubber Industries has provided an update on research undertaken together with two partners, reporting they have “shed new light on the mysteries” surrounding the rubber vulcanisation process in tyre production. This knowledge may help the Falken brand manufacturer “further improve overall tyre performance” in future.
Sumitomo Rubber Industries, manufacturer of the Falken tyre brand as well as Dunlop tyres for many markets outside Europe, reports a breakthrough that will “accelerate the development of the ultimate fuel-efficient tyres.” This breakthrough involves tomatoes.
Sumitomo Rubber Industries (SRI) and its research partners have developed a technology for measuring the structure and chemical state of matter at a nanoscale level and have employed this to visualise the sulphur compounds within lithium-sulphur batteries in greater detail than ever before. SRI anticipates not only improving the performance of lithium-sulphur batteries – the technology may also lead to better-performing tyres.
Sumitomo Rubber Industries (SRI) intends to raise production capacities at a number of its facilities around the world, but at the same time will remove some products from its portfolio in order to address rising costs. It will also aim for more “flexible” production allocation in response to changes in the business environment.
Yokohama Rubber hopes to speed up its tyre development process by implementing new rubber compounding technology that draws upon the power of artificial intelligence (AI). It is turning to a process that utilises AI-based compound generation technology to achieve user-set target property values.
Bridgestone sales revenues shot up 24.9 per cent to 1,886 billion yen (£11.632 billion; 13.764 billion euros) in the first half of 2022. However, Bridgestone’s continuing operations figures also show that operating profit dropped 1.4 per cent to 173 billion yen, resulting in 117 billion yen of profit attributable to owners (down 10.5 per cent compared with the same period in 2022). As a result, Bridgestone revised up its full-year revenue forecasts, but revised down its comparable full-year earnings per share estimates by 10 per cent from 397.58 yen per share to 357.93 yen per share.
Toyo Tire Corporation achieved a 20 per cent year-on-year increase in net sales in the first half of 2022, with the total rising to 223,667 million yen (£1.373 billion; 1.626 billion euros). At the same time, operating income came in at 25,972 million yen (£160 million; 189 million euros) in the first half of 2022. Both figures outperformed the companies first-half 2022 forecasts.
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