Nippon Mining Holdings Enjoys Large Profit Growth in F2006

Nippon Mining Holdings announced on Wednesday the firm enjoyed favorable sales and profits in fiscal 2006 ended March 2007 with consolidated net sales of 3.802 trillion yen and recurring profit of 224.236 billion yen. The net sales increased by 25.6% compared with fiscal 2005 thanks to price upsurge of copper and crude oil. The recurring profit hit annual record and increased by 18.8% from fiscal 2005 due to material price up and equity method profits from overseas copper mines. The firm estimates the profits would decrease in fiscal 2007 compared with fiscal 2006 along price down of metals.Nippon Mining & Metals Group posted recurring profit of 134.1 billion yen in fiscal 2006, up by 61.8% from fiscal 2005, while the net sales exceeded 1 trillion yen for the first time. The sales and profits especially grew up for Resources & Metals Segment whose recurring profit expanded by 87.3% to 127.8 billion yen in fiscal 2006 from fiscal 2005 when annual average of copper price hit record US 316 cents per pound.Copper metal demand was steady in Japan in fiscal 2006. Annual copper sales volume at Pan Pacific Copper, a subsidiary smelter of Nippon Mining & Metals, increased by 9.6% in fiscal 2006 from fiscal 2005. In addition, equity method profits from Chilean copper mine and South Korean copper smelter increased largely thanks to copper price upsurge.Electronic Materials Segment of Nippon Mining & Metals posted recurring loss of 2.2 billion yen in fiscal 2006. Inventory valuation of indium downed which is used for indium-tin-oxide target material, though the sales increased for electrolytic copper foil and sputtering target materials for semiconductors. In Metal Manufacturing Segment, the recurring profit increased by 6.4% to 6.6 billion yen in fiscal 2006 over previous year thanks to favorable sales of phosphor bronze and titanium copper alloy products.Nippon Mining Holdings estimates the consolidated net sales would increase slightly to 3.81 trillion yen in fiscal 2007 while the consolidated recurring profit would decline to 160 billion yen. The firm expects copper price average would down to US 280 cents per pound in fiscal 2007. Another background is that copper ore purchasing conditions become worse for Japanese smelters in fiscal 2007 than before.