Sumitomo Metal Mining Posts 43.9% Higher Profit in 1H

Sumitomo Metal Mining announced on Monday the firm posted 43.9% higher consolidated recurring profit at 137.084 billion yen for the half year to September from same period of 2006. The sales increased by 28.8% to 593.225 billion yen with higher price for copper and nickel and lower yen rate. The firm will renew record net profit for the year ending March 2008, which is 5 consecutive years record profit, and posts the first 1 trillion yen sales despite of the negative factors including lower nickel price in second half year. The firm gained from interests in La Candelaria mine and Cerro Verde mine under higher copper price in the first half. The firm posted around 40 billion yen of equity method gain including profit from PT International Nickel Indonesia. The mineral resources unit posted 55.3% higher operating profit with 28.3% higher sales for the first half from same period of 2006 due to higher metal prices including copper and gold. Nonferrous metal unit posted 33.5% higher operating profit with 33.4% higher sales due to higher metal price and output expansion for smelting operations.