Japanese major 6 special steel specialized makers posted higher consolidated sales for fiscal 2011 ended March 2012 from fiscal 2010. Hitachi Metals, Daido Steel and Mitsubishi Steel Mfg. posted higher recurring profit while Aichi Steel, Sanyo Special Steel and Nippon Koshuha Steel posted lower recurring profit. Daido Steel, Aichi Steel, Sanyo Special Steel and Mitsubishi Steel expect lower recurring profit for fiscal 2012 while Hitachi Metals and Nippon Koshuha expect higher profit.
Hitachi Metals reported 26.2% higher sales for electronics and IT devices unit in fiscal 2011 from fiscal 2010. Daido Steel’s output of steel products increased by 40,000 tonnes to 1.26 million tonnes. Aichi Steel increased the steel sales by 44,000 tonnes to 866,000 tonnes. Mitsubishi Steel posted 20.5% higher recurring profit due to higher demand and narrower loss by North American unit. They suffered from higher cost of raw materials, energy and labor. Nippon Koshuha Steel reported 700 million yen higher labor cost. They expect automobile demand recovers in second half of fiscal 2012 while other demand areas keep firm activity. They expect higher sales volume while they announced conservative outlook due to uncertain raw materials and energy cost and summer time power supply situation.