Tenaris NKK Tubes Posts Narrower Loss for F2010

Kawasaki based major seamless steel pipe maker, Tenaris NKK Tubes increased sales to 22.5 billion yen for 9 months through December 2010 from 21.4 billion yen in 12 months through March 2010. The recurring loss decreased to 2.4 billion yen from 5.8 billion yen. The firm changed fiscal period to end December as Tenaris group.

Tenaris NKK Tubes’ seamless pipe output increased by 46.7% to 110,000 tonnes for 9 months through December 2010 from full year of fiscal 2009 ended March 2010. The output increased by 12% for 13% chrome seamless pipe. The export rate increased by 11 percentage points to 77%. The pipe demand increased at home and offshore market due to higher oil development pipe demand under higher oil price and higher domestic demand under recovery of manufacturing activity.

The firm failed to post recurring profit for 9 months of 2010 due to higher raw materials cost and lower export profitability under higher yen exchange rate. However, the loss decreased due to pipe selling price increase and improvement of productivity and cost. The firm didn’t not disclose the profit target for fiscal 2011.