Yokohama sees first half profit jump on higher sales

ERJ staff report (DS)

Tokyo - The Yokohama Rubber Co., Ltd., announced today that sales and earnings increased strongly in the first half of 2012. The company also said it is on track to post record sales and earnings for the full fiscal year and revised upward the fiscal projections that it released in February.

The company is in the process of moving its fiscal year to January-December, from the more traditional April-March, so comparisons with previous years are not necessarily meaningful. Nevertheless, the company issued comparisons with the data from the same period a year ago.

Net income at Yokohama in the fiscal first half increased 280.6 percent over the same period of the previous year, to 13.7 billion yen (euro 142 million), on a 232.2 percent increase in operating income, to 19.9 billion yen, and a 7.0 percent increase in net sales, to 269.0 billion yen.

Yokohama said the surge in profitability reflected unit sales gains in tyres and in diversified products, progress in securing market acceptance for price increases, an abating of what had been a persistent upward trend in raw material costs, and continuing progress in reducing costs. Those positive factors more than offset the adverse effect of the continuing appreciation of the yen.

In Yokohama's tyre operations, operating income increased 305.5 percent over the same period of the previous year, to 16.9 billion yen, on a 6.8 percent increase in sales, to 211.1 billion yen.

In Yokohama's industrial products business, operating income increased 176.4 percent over the same period of the previous year, to 2.3 billion yen, on a 10.9 percent increase in sales, to 45.9 billion yen. That business consists mainly of high-pressure hoses, sealants and adhesives, conveyor belts, anti-seismic products, marine hoses, and marine fenders.

Yokohama's operating income in other products, which consist mainly of aircraft fixtures and components and golf equipment, declined 26.1 percent, to 703 million yen, on a 3.3 percent decline in sales, to 11.9 billion yen.

The company has raised its projection for net income to 30 billion yen, compared with the earlier projection of 25 billion yen; its projection for operating income to 49 billion yen, compared with the earlier projection of 40 billion yen; and its projection for net sales to 576 billion yen, compared with the earlier projection of 575 billion yen.

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Press release from Yokohama