For the fiscal period ended Dec. 31, 2011, the Yokohama Rubber Co. Ltd. posted net income of 11.6 billion yen on operating income of 26.3 billion yen and net sales of 465.1 billion yen. (The company has shifted to calendar-year fiscal accounting as of 2012 from its previous April-to-March accounting. That resulted in a one-time-only nine-month fiscal accounting period, and year-on-year comparisons are therefore unavailable.)
The figure for net income was 36.7% higher, operating income was 25.2% higher, and net sales was 1.1% higher than the projections announced by Yokohama in November 2011.
Underlying the better-than-projected performance were stronger-than-expected sales of replacement tires in Japan and overseas, success in securing market acceptance for price increases for tires and other products, and progress in trimming costs, the company says.
Sales in Yokohama's tire operations totaled 379.2 billion yen, 1.9% higher than the company's November projection, and operating income totaled 23.4 billion yen, 33.5% higher than the November projection.
In Japan, sales benefited from heavy snows, which spawned demand for winter tires. Sales growth in Japan's replacement market more than offset a decline in deliveries to Japanese vehicle plants. That decline reflected a slump in vehicle production caused by parts shortages that resulted from the floods in Thailand. Yokohama's overseas tire business expanded, led by gains in Europe.
