JFE Holdings announced on Monday the firm’s full-year consolidated recurring profit is forecasted to decrease by 75.9% to 40 billion yen in fiscal 2011 ending in March 2012 compared with the previous fiscal year. The firm revised its full-year recurring profit forecast down by 60 billion yen from previously announced 100 billion yen though the firm had lowered the forecast by 30 billion yen in October. Steel sales conditions have worsened due to extremely high yen rate and the Thai flood. The firm presently forecasts net profit loss at 40 billion yen for a full year of fiscal 2011, worsening from previously forecasted 20 billion yen.
For nine months of April-December 2011, consolidated recurring profit dropped by 58.1% to 59.3 billion yen from the same period of fiscal 2010. Net loss was 37.2 billion yen against net profit at 64.5 billion yen in the same period of fiscal 2010. The recurring profit decreased by 75 billion yen year-on-year by deterioration of the steel business. Raw material costs increased by 289 billion yen while sales price improvement resulted in only 150 billion yen contribution. For a full year of fiscal 2011, steel business unit is forecasted to gain 20 billion yen of recurring profit, largely worsening from 134.2 billion yen in fiscal 2010. Engineering business unit is forecasted to post 14 billion yen of recurring profit against 12.2 billion yen in the previous fiscal year. Shipbuilding unit is estimated to post 9 billion yen, lowering from 17.1 billion yen in fiscal 2010. JFE Steel’s consolidated recurring profit was 4.8 billion yen for October-December 2011 against 29.5 billion yen in the same period of fiscal 2010. Three-month recurring loss is forecasted at 22.5 billion yen for January-March 2012. JFE Steel’s non-consolidated full-year recurring loss is estimated at 25 billion yen. JFE Steel’s non-consolidated steel shipment was 5.95 million tonnes for October-December. Three-month shipment is estimated at 6.43 million tonnes for January-March. Full-year shipment would total 24.8 million tonnes. Unit price was 84,100 yen per tonne for October-December and is expected to be approximately 78,000 yen for January-March. JFE Steel’s non-consolidated crude steel output is presently forecasted to decreases by 6.3 % or 1.8 million tonnes to 27 million tonnes in fiscal 2011 from fiscal 2010. The latest forecast is lower by 1 million tonnes from 280 million tonnes previously estimated in July. Quarterly production was 6.66 million tonnes for October-December and is estimated at 6.69 million tonnes for January-March.