Sumitomo Light Metals Develops All-Aluminium Heat Exchanger for Air Conditioner

Sumitomo Light Metal Industries announced on Tuesday the company successfully developed all-aluminium-made heat exchanger for air conditioner. Conventional heat exchanger for air conditioner is composed of aluminium fin and copper tube. The company succeeded in development of new joint technology for aluminium alloy and extruded aluminium ingot, those which are alternate materials for copper tube. The company has already received many sample orders from Japanese and overseas air conditioner makers. The company plans to establish the commercial production system, even eyeing the sales to offshore markets.

Sumitomo Light Metals announced on Tuesday the company forecasts 15 billion yen of 22% year-to-year higher consolidated operating profit for fiscal 2012 started in April. The net sales forecast is 265 billion yen, 2.3% year-to-year higher.

The annual operating profit decreased by 21% to 12.3 billion yen in fiscal 2011 from the previous fiscal year. The aluminium business unit posted 166.8 billion yen of 4.3% year-to-year lower net sales with 13.2 billion yen of 26% year-to-year lower operating profit. The demand was almost the same level for beverage can materials and automotive components compared with the previous year while the shipment deteriorated for information technology industry. Aluminium plate sales decreased by 4.7% to 322,000 tonnes.