JFE Holdings Eyes 500B Yen Recurring Profit in F2008

JFE Holdings announced on Friday the firm revised the full year outlook upward to 500 billion yen of consolidated recurring profit for fiscal 2008 ending March 2009, which is higher than 450 billion yen of former outlook as of July but 0.6% lower than previous year. The firm tries to clear 500 billion yen of the profit as the 3-year target ending fiscal 2008 despite of higher raw materials cost and slower economy.

The firm revised the steel unit’s consolidated recurring profit outlook from 460 billion yen as of July to 520 billion yen for fiscal 2008 due to 50 billion yen of positive impact from higher sales volume and price and 10 billion yen of higher profit from group companies.

The firm expects JFE Steel’s raw steel output and shipment is 30.5 million tonnes and 28 million tonnes for fiscal 2008 as fiscal 2007. The firm expects the export rate in value is 43.4% for fiscal 2008 compared with 43.9% in fiscal 2007. The vice president Toshikuni Yamazaki of JFE Holdings said the steel selling price could decrease for January-March period depending on items and market condition.

JFE Holdings posted 258.6 billion yen of consolidated recurring profit for April-September, which was 0.8% lower than same period of 2007. The steel unit’s recurring profit increased by 1.5% to 268.3 billion yen due to positive factors with 20 billion yen from cost reduction, 19 billion yen from favorable exchange rate, 343 billion yen from higher sales volume and price and 14 billion yen from group companies’ profit despite of 410 billion yen of higher raw materials cost.

JFE Steel’s raw steel output increased by 450,000 tonnes to 15.49 million tonnes in April-September from same period of 2007. The steel shipment increased by 520,000 tonnes to 14.14 million tonnes. The averaged steel selling price increased by 18,800 yen to 98,500 yen per tonne.