Yokohama Reports 88% Increase in Net Earnings

Yokohama Rubber Co., Ltd. has reported an 88.1 per cent increase in net income. According to official financial results, the company generated a total of 25.7 billion yen (£123.5 million) net income in the first three quarters of its current financial year, ended 31 December. Increases of 80.2 per cent in operating income, to 30.8 billion yen (£148 million), and 11.4 per cent in net sales, to 409.7 billion yen (£2 billion) underlined growth in post-tax earnings.

Operating income nearly doubled in Yokohama’s Tire Group, climbing 98.8 per cent, to 25.6 billion yen (roughly £123.5 million), on sales growth of 13.1 per cent, to 312.5 billion yen (£1.5 billion). Improved profitability at Yokohama’s subsidiaries in the US and in Asian nations outside Japan is said to have “amplified” unit sales gains.

According to Yokohama, “Prospects of further rises in raw material costs and the recent appreciation of the yen preclude easy optimism about the business outlook. Management at Yokohama therefore adheres to the full-year fiscal projections that it announced on 9 November 2007.”