Yamato Steel Expands Lineup for Higher Result

Japanese electric furnace steel maker, Yamato Steel expanded H-beam and steel sheet pile lineup to increase the shipment for higher result for second half of fiscal 2011 ending in March 2012, president of the firm, Yoshinori Toritani said.

Yamato Steel’s result in the first half of fiscal 2011 was higher than 800 million yen operating profit of 18.8 billion yen sales in year earlier while the firm could not fully cover ferrous scrap cost increase in July-September. The steel shipment slightly decreased to 255,000 tonnes in the first half of fiscal 2011 from same period of fiscal 2010. The firm sees the shipment would increase to 263,000 tonnes for the second half of fiscal 2011 when construction projects, which were suspended due to the major quake damage, will restart, Mr. Toritani said.

The firm launched the output of large size H-beam with 900 by 300 millimeters in January. The firm expanded steel sheet pile lineup in 2010. Mr. Toritani said the demand is increasing for these new products.

The firm made investment for the quality improvement and the expansion of the lineup at its headquarters from 2006. The firm will renew the facilities of rough rolling mill for 1 billion yen within fiscal 2011 and complete the major investments.

The firm tries to reduce the production cost by 2,000 yen per tonne for fiscal 2011 due to dmand uncertainty. Mr. Toritani said the firm should reduce the cost more when the output of casting steel for shipbuilding would decrease. The firm had gained stable profit from the business. However, the output would decrease from monthly 400-500 tonnes since May while the output was 600-700 tonnes through April.