Kobe Steel’s Al, Cu Unit Posts 59% Lower Profit in F2011

Kobe Steel announced on Friday aluminium and copper business’s consolidated recurring profit decreased by 58.9% to 6 billion yen in fiscal 2011 ended in March 2012. The division posted about 1 billion yen of recurring loss in the second half year due to the demand slowdown for semiconductor related products along with Thai flood disaster in and after October. The half-year sales volume decreased from a year earlier except for copper tube. The full-year sales decreased by 4.6% to 289.9 billion yen in fiscal 2011 from fiscal 2010. Kobe Steel failed to disclosure earnings forecast for fiscal 2012.

The business gained 7 billion yen of recurring profit for April-September 2011 and had forecasted 10 billion yen of annual recurring profit for fiscal 2011. However, electronic appliance market entered inventory adjustment phase and the users of copper and aluminium fabricated products were damaged by Thai flood.

The divisional sales decreased by 7.8% to 130.7 billion yen for rolled aluminium products in fiscal 2011 from fiscal 2011. The sales volume decreased by 5.5% to 239,100 tonnes for flat products and decreased by 3.9% to 27,400 tonnes for extrusions. By applications, the sales volume kept almost unchanged for can materials while the sales decreased for liquid crystal panel and semiconductor manufacturing equipments.

For forged aluminium products, the divisional net sales deceased by 0.4% to 28.4 billion yen in fiscal 2011 from fiscal 2010. The sales deteriorated for semiconductor manufacturing equipments while kept steady for car industry.The divisional net sales decreased by 2.5% to 128.4 billion yen for copper rolled products. The sales volume of copper strip decreased by 20% to 46,900 tonnes when the demand sharply weakened for lead frames since second quarter of fiscal 2011. Copper tube sales volume increased by 1.4% to 78,800 tonnes when domestic competitors shrank outputs.