Refocused Zeon grows rubber earnings by 20%

Tokyo – Zeon Corp.'s elastomers business has notched up a 20-percent year-on-year rise in operating income for the first  three quarters of its fiscal 2016, on sales 4-percent lower at Yen136.1 billion (€1.03 billion), a group  financial statement  shows.

The increased profitability, for the nine months to  31 Dec 2015, comes at a time of restructure and refocus onto higher-value markets at the Japanese-based supplier of NBR and HNBR, SBR and BR rubbers for the tire and general rubber goods markets.

The company is currently closing its Zeon Europe production facility in Wales: posting a cost of Yen4.8 billion for “the loss of its British subsidiary” as an extraordinary item in its results statement.

Looking ahead, Zeon is forecasting a 4-percent increase for sales at its elastomers unit for the full fiscal 2016, to Yen195.5 billion. Operating income is, meanwhile, expected to grow by 23 percent year-on-year, to reach Yen20.7 billion.

The rubber plant in Sully, Wales, which is the Japanese group’s only European manufacturing site, is scheduled to cease production by the end of March.

According to the company, the closure is in response to "changing market conditions" and "uncertainty in the long-term availability and supply of primary raw materials to the UK site."

The plant employs 80 people and its nameplate production includes about 15,000 tonnes per annum of nitrile rubber, which is mainly exported to Europe.