Japanese 6 major special steel makers reported quarterly consolidated results by Friday. Hitachi Metals and Mitsubishi Steel Mfg. posted higher sales and recurring profit in April-December 2011 from same period of 2010. Hitachi Metals reported strong order from automobile and Mitsubishi Steel cited strong order from construction machinery. Other 4 makers expect lower recurring profit for fiscal 2011 ending March 2012. Aichi Steel and Nippon Koshuha Steel expect more than 40% lower profit for fiscal 2011 due to lower production of automakers and hard disc drive makers after Thai flood. The all 6 makers expect higher sales thanks to higher production.
Aichi Steel announced on Friday the firm revised the profit outlook downward by 3 billion yen to 7 billion yen for fiscal 2011 compared with former outlook in October 2011. The lower profit is due to lower production and sales mainly for forging products under automobile production cut after Thai flood. The firm reported higher cost for production increase and lower special steel use per automobile unit. The firm posted 49.4% lower recurring profit in April-December 2011 from same period of 2010. The firm reported 8.2 billion yen negative impact from higher semi-finished steel and ferroalloy and 3.2 billion yen negative impact from higher fixed cost while 4.1 billion yen of positive impact from higher sales. Nippon Koshuha Steel announced on Friday the firm posted 33.4% lower recurring profit for April-December 2011 from same period of 2010. The special steel unit posted lower operating profit while the castings unit posted higher operating profit due to strong demand for truck and industrial machinery and the dies and tools unit posted higher operating profit due to higher mold demand for automobile.