Earnings, deals and disclosures from Japan's listed materials & chemicals companies, in English.
Resonac will distribute shares in its petrochemicals subsidiary directly to its own shareholders on a one-for-one basis, a ¥37.8bn book-value dividend that drops its stake below 20% and pulls the unit out of its consolidated results, assuming Tokyo Stock Exchange approves the listing planned for September 29 ahead of the October 1 distribution.
Osaka Titanium is combining a ¥22bn share sale with a government subsidy of up to ¥8.0bn to lift sponge-titanium capacity 25% at its Amagasaki plant, betting aerospace buyers keep substituting away from Russian metal.
Lintec's ¥30bn treasury buyback absorbed ¥29.4bn of Nippon Paper's stake directly, cutting the pending secondary offering to 12.4 million shares and handing Nippon Paper a ¥26.3bn gain ahead of pricing due September 1 to 3.
Chemipro Kasei has cut its year-to-March-2027 ordinary-profit margin target to 2.4% from 5% or higher and its ROE goal to 3.2% from 7% or higher, citing a naphtha price spike tied to the Strait of Hormuz blockade.
Lintec approved a ¥30bn share buyback the same day Nippon Paper agreed to sell nearly all its 20 million Lintec shares, a sale that ends Nippon Paper's run as Lintec's top shareholder and equity-method partner.
Kaneka's Osaka District Court claim against supplier Onamba covers recall costs only through March 2026, and Kaneka has already flagged that the ¥3.63bn bill for the 2024 solar cable recall will grow.
Faster regulatory approvals let Mitsui Chemicals finish buying Ultradent Products a month ahead of plan on August 14, and the company is relocating global headquarters functions for its oral-care business from Japan to the new US holding company, with the earnings impact still under review.
A server-board adhesion chemical and semiconductor process materials drove Shikoku Kasei's first-half operating profit up 80%, and the Japanese chemical maker has now raised both its full-year earnings guidance and its dividend outlook.
Mec's chemical additives for semiconductor packaging boards posted a 34% sales jump and a six-point margin gain in the six months to June, as generative-AI data-center chipmakers buy more of its CZ-series adhesion promoters across Japan, Taiwan and China.
A short seller's report linking Sumitomo Pharma's approved therapy to unresolved image-duplication questions at Kyoto University's CiRA discloses a stock position that pays off if the report's target sees its shares fall; Sumitomo Pharma calls the report one-sided and may sue.
Commodity prices and a weaker yen, not one-off accounting, drove Sumitomo Metal Mining's 55% increase in its annual profit forecast to ¥216bn, and the company's own price assumptions for the rest of the year are already more conservative than what it saw in the first quarter.
DIC's operating profit nearly doubled to ¥51.9bn in the first half as AI chip demand and quick price hikes offset raw-material costs, prompting the chemicals maker to raise its full-year outlook, lift its dividend to ¥150 a share and authorize a buyback of up to ¥10bn.
A one-off ¥7bn gain from selling two chemical units, not just stronger toothpaste and detergent sales, drove more than half of the increase in Lion's first-half operating profit.
Optical-cable and connector demand tied to data-center buildouts pushed Furukawa Electric to raise its full-year operating profit target by ¥28.0bn, to ¥123.0bn, and its interim profit forecast by ¥14.5bn.
A petrochemicals spin-off is cutting Resonac's revenue guidance by ¥145bn this year, but AI-linked demand for chip packaging materials is driving its profit forecast up 40% to ¥196bn.
JFE Holdings has replaced the undecided first-half guidance it published in May with hard numbers: ¥65bn in profit, more than double last year's ¥26.7bn, alongside a fixed ¥40-and-¥40 dividend split and a roughly ¥45bn land sale at its Kawasaki steelworks.
Kao's first-half operating profit rose 38.5% to ¥95.8bn, with ¥11.5bn of that from a land sale tied to a logistics overhaul; even excluding the gain, profit was the strongest since 2019, and the company raised its full-year operating-profit target to ¥190bn from ¥182bn.
Nippon Paper withdrew its ¥1.22tn sales forecast for the year to March 2027 after a fatal tank collapse at its Washington-state unit and earthquake damage shut its Kumamoto mill, and it has not said when a new number will arrive.
Sumitomo Pharma says its auditor's unqualified opinion covers the accounts a new report questions, and for now it has found nothing that would justify restating them.
Sumitomo Chemical's net profit swung to ¥40.8bn from a year-earlier loss, driven largely by a ¥32.7bn turnaround at its Rabigh refining joint venture in Saudi Arabia and steadier crop-chemical sales, while management left its ¥70bn full-year profit target unchanged.
Furukawa Electric will spend roughly ¥100bn in the US, Brazil, Japan and India to nearly double its rollable ribbon-cable capacity for hyperscale data centers, with customer purchase commitments already in hand but revenue and profit impact not showing up until production ramps from late 2028.
Nippon Steel raised its full-year net profit forecast to ¥290bn, up nearly a third, as stronger US steel prices and a turnaround at United States Steel outweighed rising raw-material costs and falling Middle East exports at home.
Nippon Light Metal Holdings raised its full-year operating profit target 22% to ¥33bn and lifted its dividend to ¥110 a share, citing recovering orders for aluminum plates used in semiconductor manufacturing equipment and sustained lithium-ion battery material sales.
First-quarter operating profit jumped 61% at Sumitomo Electric on booming data-center optical demand tied to generative AI, prompting the company to raise its full-year sales and profit targets.