Metal One Posts 21% Higher Profit for 2006

Metal One Corporation announced on Thursday the consolidated net profit increased by 21% to 39.9 billion yen for the year to December 2006 from 2005. The unconsolidated net profit increased by 80% to 21.2 billion yen. The net profit increased when the firm posted 7.2 billion yen of consolidated special gain, which was 1.8 billion yen lower than 2005, including 3 billion yen from sale of securities and 2.1 billion yen from sale of fixed assets despite of 2.4 billion yen of special loss, which was 1.9 billion yen lower than 2005. The sales increased by 7% for consolidated base and by 3% for unconsolidated base in 2006 from 2005 due to higher domestic trade for manufacturers including automobile and construction applications and higher worldwide demand for energy industry. The firm changes the financial term from calendar year to fiscal year to March and will post temporally 15 months results to March 2008. The expects 2.9 trillion yen of consolidated sales, 150 billion yen of gross profit on sales, 60 billion yen of recurring profit and 33.5 billion yen of net profit for 12 months to December 2007. The firm expects higher sales for 2007 from 2006 due to firm domestic market condition while the firm expects lower profit due to volatile market for stainless steel and ferrous scrap, unfavorable exchange rate, uncertainty for US economy, higher personnel and internal control expense, onetime charge for change of fiscal year and higher interest rate. The firm expects the special gain also reduces the net profit for the year.