Tokyo, Japan – Sumitomo Rubber Industries, Japan’s second-biggest tire maker, said it expected group production to rise by about 5 percent to 102.17 million tires, or 554,000 metric tons of rubber equivalent in 2013.
This would be its fourth annual increase in production thanks to recovery in shipments abroad for new automobiles and for replacements, the company said in a statement. In 2012, group production totaled 97.17 million tires, or 525,000 metric tons of rubber equivalent.
The company expects group net profit to rise to 41 billion yen ($439 million) in 2013 from a record 35.5 billion yen in 2012. “In Japan, the government is preparing a package of stimulus spending. But it would take a while before such spending helps the economy to enter a cyclical uptrend,” company president Ikuji Ikeda said at an earnings briefing on Thursday. Ikeda also said Sumitomo Rubber would study the needs of each region and select the best location to build a new factory with a capacity of at least 15,000 tires a day by the end of this year.
Source: Rubber World
