Japan Major Steels Post High Level Profit

Nippon Steel and Sumitomo Metal Industries posed higher consolidated recurring profit for April-December 2006 from same period of 2005 when the sales volume and price increased under high level demand for high grade steel items. Sumitomo Metals revised the full year outlook upward to 200 billion yen of net profit, which is 10 billion yen higher than previous outlook. Nippon Steel is likely to post record recurring profit for the full year and JFE Holdings and Kobe Steel will also post record level profit. JFE posted 6.4% lower consolidated recurring profit at 354.4 billion yen for April-December from same period of 2005. The steel unit’s operating profit was 348.9 billion yen. The raw steel output increased by 8.4% to 24.41 million tonnes. The unconsolidated raw steel output increased by 8.1% to 21.54 million tonnes and the shipment increased by 6.8% to 19.41 million tonnes. The averaged steel selling price increased by 1,100 yen to 76,800 yen per tonne in October-December from July-September. Sumitomo Metals posted 13.9% higher consolidated recurring profit at 238.7 billion yen for April-December from same period of 2005. The steel unit’s operating profit was 208.7 billion yen. The raw steel output was 10.01 million tonnes including Kokura, Naoetsu and Sumikin Iron & Steel. The averaged steel selling price was 100,100 yen per tonne in October-December compared with 96,700 yen in April-September. Kobe Steel posted 0.3% lower consolidated recurring profit at 127.7 billion yen for April-December from same period of 2005. The profit, without higher depreciation due to fixed rate method introduced in the year, is actually higher than same period of 2005. The steel unit’s operating profit was 67.4 billion yen. The raw steel output increased by 2.3% to 5.84 million tonnes and the shipment decreased by 0.6% to 4.89 million tonnes. The averaged steel selling price increased by 1,100 yen to 75,100 yen per tonne in October-December from July-September.