Japan Nonferrous Smelters Cut Profit Target for F2008

Japanese major 8 nonferrous smelters posted lower consolidated recurring profit for the first half year to September from same period of 2007. Lower metal market and higher yen rate impacted their profitability. Seven smelters of them revised the full year outlook downward when they expect the business condition gets worse in the second half.

Nippon Mining Holdings cuts the net profit target by 75% for the year ending March 2009 from original outlook as of April. Mitsubishi Materials, Mitsui Mining & Smelting, Dowa Holdings, Furukawa and Toho Zinc expect the full year net profit is around half of original outlook.

Nippon Mining Holdings expects the full year net profit is only 18 billion yen compared with 45.7 billion yen of half year profit. The firm expects net loss for the second half year due to lower copper ingot price and oil price.

Sumitomo Metal Mining reported the equity method profit decreased by 14% to 34.2 billion yen for the first half from same period of 2007. Mitsui Mining & Smelting posted 66% lower the equity method profit at 2.3 billion yen. Mitsubishi Materials expects the equity method profit decreases to 43.1 billion yen for the full year, which is 81% lower than previous year.