Sumitomo reports a decline in profit

Sumitomo Rubber Industries has reported its financial results for the first half of 2025, stating that sales for the period decreased by 2.5% to $3.9 billion, and operating profit fell by 33.1% to $190 million, partly due to an increase in raw material costs.

In Sumitomo, they also talked about plans to develop the Dunlop brand, the rights to which in a number of regions of the world were purchased from Goodyear in May of this year. In the same month, the company started selling Dunlop tires in North America and Australia, and soon the products will be introduced to the European market. In addition, in January 2026, Sumitomo plans to introduce new tires under the Dunlop brand in the North American market.

Last year, the company presented new Dunlop Synchro Weather tires in Japan, which could potentially become the first all-season model suitable for northern winters. After their release, the tires received a number of awards, including at the international level, and now Sumitomo is improving the Active Tread technology, which allows Synchro Weather to adapt to weather conditions, in order to introduce next-generation all-season tires, which are expected to be released in Europe and North America in 2027, and the company expects them to become a new flagship in the Dunlop brand lineup.

After the introduction of new US tariffs on imports, Sumitomo expected that the associated additional costs in 2025 would be $120 million, but since new trade agreements were signed between Japan, Indonesia, and the US, this figure was reduced to $100 million. The company also intends to compensate for the negative effect of the introduction of new tariffs by raising prices for products, optimizing the range and internal measures to reduce costs.