Japanese major nonferrous metals smelters’ profitability is severe due to lower metals price and higher yen rate according to their half year results announced by Wednesday. Sumitomo Metal Mining revised the annual profit target downward to 104 billion yen of consolidated recurring profit for fiscal 2011 ending March 2012, which is 16% lower than previous outlook and 16% lower the profit in fiscal 2010. JX Nippon Mining & Metals also reduced the target to 63 billion yen, which was 7% lower than previous target and 11% lower than fiscal 2010 level.
JX Nippon Mining & Metals posted 27% higher recurring profit for the first half of fiscal 2011 from same period of fiscal 2010. The firm gained from higher copper price. Sumitomo Metal Mining posted 30% higher recurring profit and Mitsubishi Materials posted 22% higher profit due to higher copper price. Mitsui Mining & Smelting posted 20% lower recurring profit for the first half of fiscal 2011 from same period of fiscal 2010 with onetime gain of asset sales. The firm revised the annual profit target downward to 21 billion yen for fiscal 2011, which is 22% lower than previous outlook and 38% lower than fiscal 2010. Toho Zinc posted 94% lower recurring profit for the first half of fiscal 2011 from same period of fiscal 2010 due to 26% lower profit due to damage from the major earthquake.