Maruichi Steel Tube Posts Y/Y 13% Lower Consolidated Recurring Profit for Apr-Jun

Maruichi Steel Tube, Japanese major steel tube maker, announced on Friday its 3-month consolidated recurring profit decreased by 13.2% for April-June 2011 from the corresponding period of fiscal 2010. The sales, operating profit and net profit decreased year-on-year, too. The demand was low from domestic construction market. Moreover, the firm couldn’t pass higher material cost fully on the selling price. SUNSCO, the firm’s subsidiary in Vietnam, posted net loss mainly due to goodwill amortization.

Domestic demand has gradually recovered from automobile industry while maintained low from building constructions. The firm announced the price hike against domestic customers for March-April but the price increase was insufficient. The consolidated sales for the domestic business decreased by 0.2% to 22.694 billion yen for April-June compared with the same period of fiscal 2010. The profit decreased by 11.5% to 4.111 billion yen.

As for North American business, Maruichi American Corporation and Leavitt Tube Company, the group companies, increased the sales volume and succeeded in price hike of steel tube products. The total sales increased by 36% to 3.307 billion yen. The profit expanded by 2.78 times to 477 million yen. For Asian business, the sales increased by 18.3% to 3.371 billion yen due to sales volume increase and higher selling price at SUNSCO though net loss was 216 million yen.

Maruichi Steel Tube revised down its full-year consolidated financial forecast. The net sales forecast was lowered to 125 billion yen from previous 130.3 billion yen. The recurring profit forecast was reviewed to 18.7 billion yen from previous 19.5 billion yen. The net profit forecast is lately 10.9 billion yen against previous 11.5 billion.