The Yokohama Rubber Co. announced its sales in the first half of the present fiscal year increased 17.9% over the same period of the previous fiscal year, to 238.3 billion yen.

Yokohama posted interim operating income of 8.3 billion yen and interim net income of 1.2 billion yen, compared with an operating deficit of 2.4 billion yen and a net deficit of 3.9 billion yen in the first half of the previous fiscal year. These figures are for the six months to Sept. 30, 2010, the first half of the fiscal year to March 31, 2010.

Leading Yokohama’s business upturn was strong sales growth in tires, in high-pressure hoses, and in sealants. That growth more than offset the adverse effect on earnings of rising prices for raw materials and the appreciation of the yen. Earnings further benefited from rises in capacity utilization rates and from Yokohama’s progress in cost-cutting programs, according to the tiremaker. Sales in Yokohama’s tire operations increased 18.5% over the first half of the previous fiscal year, to 184.9 billion yen, and interim operating income totaled 6.1 billion yen, compared with an operating deficit of 2.5 billion yen in the first half of the previous fiscal year.

Yokohama projects that net sales will increase 11.5% in the fiscal year to March 31, 2011, to 520.0 billion yen; that operating income will increase 18.9%, to 25.5 billion yen; and that net income will increase 0.1%, to 11.5 billion yen. The projection for operating income is 41.7% higher and that for net income 43.8% higher than the projections released by Yokohama on May 12, 2010.