TOKYO (Feb. 9, 2005) — Yokohama Rubber Co. Ltd. suffered a slight drop in operating income through three quarters of its fiscal year, despite a doubling of operating profits in North America.
For the period ended Dec. 31, Yokohama reported a 2.2-percent drop in operating income to $162.3 mllion as higher prices of raw materials and rising selling, general and administrative costs offset gains in other areas. Net income fell 6.9 percent to $75.1 million because of inventory losses and a loss on devaluation of investment securities.
Corporate sales increased 3 percent from a year earlier, to $2.84 billion, with Tire Division sales rising 4.3 percent to $2.09 billion on solid overseas business, especially in North America, Europe and Asian countries outside of Japan, the Tokyo-based tire maker said.
In North America, Yokohama's income rose 132.8 percent to $13.6 million while sales grew 4.6 percent to $491.5 million.
Management is sticking to its earlier full-year projections of gains of 4.6 percent and 9.1 percent for sales and operating income, respectively, while net income should come about 3.2 percent shy of the fiscal 2004 mark.