TOKYO, Aug. 8 (Kyodo) — Bridgestone Corp. said Monday its group net profit in the January-June period increased 21.6 percent from a year earlier to 54.12 billion yen on brisk sales of tires, its mainline product, both in Japan and overseas.
The tiremaker's consolidated operating profit in the first half of the business year rose 19.4 percent to 93.63 billion yen despite the suspension of plants following the March 11 earthquake and tsunami as well as higher material costs.
Semiannual ales increased 5.3 percent to 1.46 trillion yen.
Bridgestone also revised upward its earnings projections for the full year to December to reflect cost-cutting and brisk tire sales. It raised its full-year group net profit forecast from 94 billion yen to 115 billion yen. The group operating profit forecast was revised from 167 billion yen, to 194 billion yen, up 16.6 percent from the previous year.
Additionally, Bridgestone announced it will boost the production capacity of a radial passenger tire plant in Tianjin, China by 8,800 tires per day, to 25,300 per day, to meet growing demand there.