DIC Reports Consolidated 1H 2025 Financial Results

DIC Corporation reported its consolidated financial results for the six months ended June 30, 2025. In the six months ended June 30, 2025, DIC Corporation’s consolidated net sales declined 2.9%, to ¥523.2 billion ($3.54 billion). Operating income rose 22.9%, to ¥27 billion ($180 million).

“Looking at key global economies in recent months, attention remained focused on the progress of negotiations among countries and regions following the United States’ announcement of a reciprocal tariffs policy,” DIC reports. “Corporate and consumer behavior varied, reflecting an increasing wariness attributable to the uncertain economic outlook, with pre-tariff demand surges seen in some areas and tariff-induced buying restraint in others.

“Operating income advanced 22.9%, to ¥27.0 billion,” DIC continues. “This was due mainly in the Color & Display segment, bolstered by sales price revisions implemented to boost margins, and to a return to profitability overseas after an operating loss in the corresponding period of the previous fiscal year, thanks to ongoing structural reforms in the pigments business in the United States and Europe, which pushed down costs.”

Segment Sales

Packaging & Graphic segment sales declined 4.3%, to ¥268.8 billion ($1.82 billion). Segment operating income declined 11.9%, to ¥15.2 billion ($1oo million).

“In the area of packaging inks, used chiefly on packaging for food products, shipments deteriorated in Japan, and in the Americas and Europe—the former due to rising prices, which dampened consumption, and the latter reflecting concerns regarding tariffs—but sales were up, bolstered by ongoing efforts to adjust sales prices,” DIC notes.

“Shipments and sales prices in Asia and Oceania were buffeted by flagging market conditions and sales price competition, as a result of which sales waned everywhere except in the People’s Republic of China (PRC), which reported an increase attributable to initiatives aimed at fostering new customers and expanded marketing,” adds DIC.

“Sales of publication inks, which center on inks for commercial printing and news inks, decreased, with dwindling demand pushing down shipments, notably in the Americas and Europe. Sales of jet inks, used in digital printing, rose, as shipments remained firm.”

“Operating income in Japan decreased, as steps taken to modify sales prices for packaging inks and publication inks were insufficient to counter elevated costs,” DIC reports. “Operating income overseas was also down, falling in Asia and Oceania, where sales flagged, as well as in the Americas and Europe, where falling shipments and exchange rate fluctuations arising from the depreciation of emerging market currencies, among others, undermined ongoing efforts to maintain sales prices by ensuring stable supplies and services. On a local currency basis, however, operating income in the Americas and Europe was up 1.6%.”

Color & Display segment sales declined 1.7%, to ¥132 billion ($890 million). The segment reported operating income of ¥5.7 billion ($39 million), an increase of 13.1 times.

“The segment reported operating income of ¥5.7 billion, up 13.1 times, bolstered by price revisions aimed at improving margins and by ongoing structural reforms in the pigments business in the United States and Europe, which helped trim costs, underpinning a return to profitability overseas,” DIC notes.