Yokohama maintains profits on lower sales

ERJ staff report (DS)

Tokyo-The Yokohama Rubber Co., Ltd., posted stable operating income for the nine months ended December 31, 2009, but sales were significantly lower.

The company reported a 0.1% increase in operating income, to 17.3 billion yen (euro 137.8 million). It achieved this despite a 16.2% decline in net sales, to 344.0 billion yen (euro 2740 million).

Net income for the period rocketed to 9.0 billion yen (euro 71.7 million), up from 222 million yen in the same period of the previous fiscal year.

In the tyre activity, sales declined 14.6%, but operating income increased 18.0%.

In the company's diversified Business Group, sales fell 22 percent to yen 71.2 billion while operating income declined 86.3%, to 495 million yen.

The sales decline in the tyre Group reflected weak sales in Yokohama's largest markets, Japan and North America, and occurred despite sales gains in China and Russia. Weak demand undercut sales in the Multiple Business Group, especially in high-pressure hoses and in conveyor belts. Affecting sales adversely in both groups was the appreciation of the yen against the US dollar and against the euro.

Management at Yokohama abides by the fiscal projections it released in October 2009 for the full fiscal year to March 31, 2010. Those projections call for net income to total 7.0 billion yen, compared with a net loss of 5.7 billion yen in the previous fiscal year; for operating income to increase 32.7%, to 17.0 billion yen; and for net sales to decline 10.1%, to 465.0 billion yen.

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Press release from Yokohama