Nippon Mining Holdings Widely Revises Down Profit Forecast for F2008

Nippon Mining Holdings announced on 31 October the firm revised down its consolidated annual account forecast for fiscal 2008 (Apr08-Mar09) due to price down of petroleum products and nonferrous metals. The latest estimation of the annual consolidated revenue is 4.3 trillion yen, revised down from 4.56 trillion yen previously announced in April and lower by 1% than the actual revenue in fiscal 2007. The latest estimation of the annual consolidated recurring profit is 47 billion yen, revised down by 68% from the previous estimation and lower by 76% than fiscal 2007 to reflect less inventory valuation of petroleum products and price decline of electrolytic copper. The firm also revised down the forecast of net profit by 82% to 18 billion yen.

The annual revenue forecast of Nippon Mining & Metals was set at 950 billion yen for F2008, revised down from 1.09 trillion yen announced in April to reflect lower electrolytic copper price. The annual recurring profit estimation was revised down to 67.5 billion yen from previous 85 billion yen. As a precondition to the latest forecast, the firm lowered overseas copper price estimation at average US 283 cents per pound from previously estimated US 350 cents. The firm also revised down the electrolytic copper selling volume plan to 629,000 tonnes from previous 643,000 tonnes. The petroleum product group will post recurring loss of 32 billion yen through F2008.

Nippon Mining Holding’s half-year consolidated revenue increased by 18% to 2.38 trillion yen for Apr-Sep 2008 compared with the corresponding period of 2007 and the recurring profit decreased by 9% to 87.5 billion yen. Nippon Mining & Metals’ half-year revenue downed by 1% to 557.4 billion yen and the recurring profit declined by 8% to 54.3 billion yen.

Nippon Mining & Metals could post 4.1 billion yen higher recurring profit year-on-year for the mineral and resource business unit thanks to high copper price and sales volume increase. However, the profit decreased by 12.8 billion yen year-on-year for the metal smelting business unit. The firm explained the profit was cut by 10.8 billion yen due to worse ore purchasing terms. Higher yen exchange rate also impacted the profit.