Yokohama Rubber post record earnings for first three quarters of 2021
Tokyo, Japan – The Yokohama Rubber Co., Ltd., announced its business and financial results for the first three quarters (January to September) of fiscal 2021. Profit attributable to owners of parent increased approximately 10-fold over the same period of the previous year, to 43.5 billion yen, on an approximately 7-fold increase in operating profit, to 59.3 billion yen; an approximately 4-fold increase in business profit, to 37.1 billion yen; and a 22.3% increase in sales revenue, to 460.5 billion yen.
Yokohama’s figures for profit attributable to owners of parent, operating profit and business profit were the highest ever for the first nine months of a fiscal year. The third-quarter figure for sales revenue exceeded that for the same period in 2019, which preceded the COVID-19 outbreak, and was the company’s highest ever for that period.
* Business profit is basically equivalent to operating income under accounting principles generally accepted in Japan and calculated as sales revenue less the sum of cost of sales and selling, general and administrative expenses.
Sales revenue and business profit in Yokohama’s Tires segment increased over the same period of the previous year. In original equipment tires, sales revenue increased despite the adverse effect of global shortages of semiconductor devices on vehicle production in Japan, North America, China, and other regions. Sales revenue also increased in replacement tires. Yokohama promoted high-value-added products effectively, expanded production to meet robust demand, and took swift measures to cope with the container shortage and shipping delays in international logistics. The company thereby succeeded in achieving sales gains in replacement tires in North America, in Europe, and in India and other Asian markets, excluding Japan.
Yokohama posted increases, too, in sales revenue and business profit in its MB (Multiple Business) segment. Sales revenue increased in hose & couplings, reflecting a market recovery in the construction equipment sector. Yokohama’s sales revenue declined in industrial products. That decline reflected a slump in sales of marine equipment products, which resulted from delays in large projects on replacement products and which offset strength in conveyor belts in Japan. Continuing weakness in demand in the commercial aircraft sector undermined sales revenue in aircraft fixtures and components.
The company has transferred its Hamatite sealants and adhesives business. Yokohama has therefore reclassified its Hamatite business, formerly included in the MB segment, as discontinued operations for the nine-month periods ended September 30, 2021 and 2020. This change has included excluding the Hamatite fiscal results from the figures presented here for sales revenue, business profit, and operating profit, but Yokohama continues to include those results in the figures presented for profit attributable to owners of parent.
Sales revenue and business profit climbed to record levels in Yokohama’s ATG segment, which comprises business in tires for agricultural machinery, for industrial machinery, and for other off-highway applications. The strong performance reflected sales gains in all of ATG’s principal product categories.
Yokohama has revised upward the full-year fiscal projections for 2021 sales and earnings that it announced in August. Yokohama’s revised projections call for profit attributable to owners of parent to total 58.0 billion yen, up 0.9% over the earlier projection, on operating profit of 74.5 billion yen, up 1.4%; business profit of 52.5 billion yen, up 1.9%; and sales revenue of 655.0 billion yen, the same amount as in the earlier projection.