Japan 2 Titanium Makers Enjoy Higher Sales and Profits in 1H

Japanese 2 sponge titanium makers enjoyed favorable sales and profits in the first half of fiscal 2007 ended September thanks to the increasing demand and selling price for titanium worldwide. Osaka Titanium Technologies, previous Sumitomo Titanium, posted recurring profit of 10.157 billion yen for 1H of F2007, which upped by 34.7% compared with the corresponding period of F2006 and exceeded 10 billion yen for the first time. Toho Titanium posted record recurring profit of 7.002 billion yen on consolidated base, up by 36.3% on year-to-year comparison.Osaka Titanium Technologies’ net sales increased by 26.3% and recurring profit by 34.7% in 1H of F2007 compared with the same period of F2006. The firm enjoyed 50% higher sales and 160% higher profits in 1H of F2006 on year-to-year base thanks to the output capacity expansion. The profit continued to grow in F2007. The net sales for the titanium business segment increased by 23.1% to 19.831 billion yen in 1H of F2007 from a year earlier when the firm kept full production of sponge titanium and raised the selling price of titanium ingot by about 30% against the users.Toho Titanium posted consolidated net sales of 21.911 billion yen in 1H of F2007, up by 19.5% compared to the corresponding period of F2006 thanks to the favorable conditions for the titanium business and the additive business. The net sales of sponge titanium decreased by 0.4% to 4.609 billion yen while the sales of titanium ingot increased by 38.4% to 8.348 billion yen when the firm expanded the output to meet strong demand from domestic titanium ingot users.