Bloomberg Car tires helped make Thailand a $6 billion latex powerhouse. Now, the industry wants to plaster the plant material on faces and use it to stop coastal erosion in a makeover designed to keep more rubber profits at home. Thai rubber, which has traditionally ended up in foreign tires, gloves, and other manufactured products, is reeling from slowing car ...

Bloomberg Showa Denko KK, Japan’s No 3 diversified chemicals supplier, agreed to pay more than double its own market value to buy its bigger rival Hitachi Chemical Co, to scale up its lithium-ion battery and advanced materials businesses and keep pace with Chinese rivals. Tokyo-based Showa Denko offered as much as 964 billion yen ($8.8 billion) for all shares of ...

Bloomberg Japanese exports dropped for a 12th straight month in November, offering no clear indication yet of a pickup despite recent signs of green shoots in global manufacturing. The value of shipments overseas fell 7.9% in November from a year earlier, dragged down by sliding exports of cars and construction and mining equipment, data from the Ministry of Finance showed ...