Showa Aluminum Can to Regain Profitability in 2009

Showa Aluminum Can tries to regain profitability in 2009, the president Masaru Horimachi said at press conference on Thursday. The firm, which posted loss in 2008 due to lower sales volume and higher raw materials cost, tries to improve cost structure and market presence for better profitability.

The sales were 2.67 billion units of can body in 2008, which was 300 million units lower than 2007, and the can cap sales decreased by 670 million units to 2.77 billion units. The firm reduced the market share when the firm tried to pass higher cost of raw materials.

The firm posted 680 million yen of operating loss and 1.16 billion yen of recurring loss in 2008, which were 1.96 billion yen and 26.7 billion yen lower than from profit in 2007. Higher raw materials cost and lower sales volume impacted on the results while the sales decreased by 3.4 billion yen to 33.1 billion yen.

The firm tries to improve the capacity to make base coat products in 2009 while the firm couldn’t meet all orders for the products due to capacity neck. The firm also tries to improve the selling price to cover higher cost for materials while the firm reduces the cost by 400 million yen in 2009 after near 500 million yen down in 2008.