Toray: net income 2015/16 up by 27%

Toray Industries, the Japanese textile fibres and assorted materials manufacturer, announced a 27% year-on-year growth in net income in 2015/2016, and is forecasting +16.5% this year.

At the end of the fiscal year running from April 2015 to March 2016, Toray's net profit reached the value of JPY90.13 billion (€721 million). At the same time, EBITDA leaped by 25%, reaching JPY155 billion, all of this after increases a year earlier of respectively 19% and 17%.

In the past fiscal year, the carbon fibre specialist's revenue rose by 4.7% to JPY2.104 trillion (€16.83 billion), a result driven by all of the group's businesses, apart from its relatively marginal medical division.

Sales for the textile division rose by 4.1%, reaching JPY892 billion. The sluggish Japanese demand for apparel production and also for cars has undoubtedly played a role. The group however has made up for it overseas, notably with higher-quality textiles for South-East Asia, with automotive industry textiles (airbags and cockpits), and with hygiene products.

Foreign demand for cars has also been beneficial to the plastics division, whose revenue increased by 5%, reaching JPY521 billion. The decrease in cost of goods, due to raw materials' falling prices, has also given a boost to profits.

Toray does not hesitate to sustain its policy of heavy investment in technologies regarded as promising, and stated that it has increased its products' level of technicality.

For several years it has partnered with Uniqlo for the latter's range of tech fabric garments, which notably allow to retain body heat in winter (HeatTech) or on the contrary to cool body temperature down in summer (Airism).

Composite materials still represent less than 10% of the group's overall revenue, but they have once more posted a solid growth (+17.6%). This, the Japanese group stated, was due to the growing demand for carbon fibres in aeronautics and for the fabrication of liquefied natural gas tanks. Related profits have grown by 38%.

In this field, US aircraft manufacturer Boeing and, to a lesser extent, European manufacturer Airbus, are among Toray's main clients. The Japanese group is the world's largest supplier of carbon fibres, a highly resistant and lightweight material also used for sports equipment. Its demand is about to take off in the automotive industry too.

The electronics industry materials sector (notably film for screens) has also performed satisfactorily, driven by the smartphone and tablet markets, as well as by that of 4K TVs, a step up from HD.

For the fiscal year started on 1st April and closing at the end of March 2017, Toray has forecasted a net income of JPY105 billion (+16.5%), and an operating income of JPY170 billion (+10%), with a revenue of JPY2.23 trillion (+6%).