OSAKA Titanium Technologies Moves Up Sponge Expansion

OSAKA Titanium Technologies moves up the output expansion of titanium sponge 3 months forward. The firm will start shipment of additional 8,000-tonne titanium sponge in October 2008, originally scheduled to start in January 2009.The firm plans to expand the output capacity of titanium sponge to total 41,000 tonnes per year by October 2009. The first expansion by 8,000 tonnes was originally scheduled to complete in January 2009. The second expansion by 6,000 tonnes will finish in July 2009 and the third expansion by 3,000 tonnes in October 2009. The firm said the time schedules for the second and third expansions are unchanged.OSAKA Titanium Technologies announced its full-year financial results for fiscal 2007 ended March 2008 on Monday. The firm enjoyed the higher sales and profits year-on-year for 4 fiscal years in a row. The net sales increased by 24% year-on-year to 53.6 billion yen, the recurring profit increased by 29.2% to 20.5 billion yen and the net profit increased by 23.8% to 11.5 billion yen.The net sales for the titanium business unit were 39.8 billion yen through F2007, up by 17.5% from F2006. Demand maintained strong from overseas plants or plate-type heat exchangers adopted to vessels and LNG plants. Titanium export was also strong thanks to the steady demand from aerospace industry.The net sales for the other business units were 13.8 billion yen in F2007, up by 47.8% from F2006. The shipment of polycrystalline silicon increased which is used for semiconductors. The output expansion completed in May 2007 also contributed to the higher sale volume.