SSBR surge buoys JSR's elastomers business

Tokyo – JSR Corp.’s elastomers unit has posted a 7-percent, year-on-year increase in operating income, to Yen903 million (€8 million), on net sales down 7 percent to Yen40,528 million (€358.3 million) for the first quarter of its fiscal year – to 31 March 2017.

The performance included a “surge” in net sales volumes of solution styrene butadiene (SSBR) during the three months to 30 June, the Japanese group reported.

Overall, however, earnings at JSR’s elastomers business were held back by the rapid appreciation of the yen, which largely offset “improving buy-sell spreads.”

The business was further impacted by a “continued stagnation in domestic tire demand,” according to JSR’s report, which also noted a 4-percent fall in elastomer volumes to 156 kilotonnes