The Yokohama Rubber Co. announced it has raised its projections for consolidated net sales and earnings in the first half of the fiscal year, the period from April 1 to Sept. 30, 2010. The improved outlook for earnings reflects accelerated progress in trimming costs, as well as the increased sales forecast, the company said.

Yokohama now projects that its net loss of 3.9 billion yen in the first half of the previous fiscal year will shrink to approximately zero. Management expects the company to post operating income of 6.3 billion yen, compared with an operating loss of.4 billion yen in the first half of the previous fiscal year.

Yokohama’s projections call for net sales to increase 18.3% over the same period of the previous fiscal year, to 239.0 billion yen. The projection for net income is a 1.4 billion yen improvement over the projection announced on July 30, 2010. Yokohama has raised the projection for operating income 57.5% and the projection for net sales 0.4%. The company will announce its full-year fiscal projections on Nov. 1, 2010.