Nippon Steel Targets 230 Billion Yen Recurring Profit for F2011

Nippon Steel announced on Wednesday the consolidated recurring profit will be 110 billion yen for April-September, which is 18.4% lower than same period of 2010. The firm targets 230 billion yen level of the profit for fiscal 2011 ending March 2012 as fiscal 2010 by improving profitability of steel business while the firm didn’t disclosed the target in April.

The firm posted 57 billion yen of recurring profit for April-June, which is 7.9% lower than same period of 2010. The profit is 19.1 billion yen higher than January-March period. The steel business’ recurring profit was 48.5 billion yen compared with 20.7 billion yen in same period of 2010.

The parent company’s recurring profit was 33.8 billion yen in April-June compared with 6.8 billion yen in January-March. The raw steel output decreased to 7.75 million tonnes from 8.26 million tonnes while the export rate increased to 41.9% in value from 40.9%. The averaged steel selling price increased to 85,800 yen per tonne from 79,700 yen.

The firm expects 53 billion yen of consolidated recurring profit for July-September including 51.5 billion yen of profit for steel business. The parent company’s recurring profit decreases to 26.2 billion yen due to inventory valuation loss. The firm expects the raw steel output is in line with quarterly 8 million tonnes of normal level. The firm expects around 40% export rate and 92,000 yen per tonne of steel selling price.

The firm expects the steel business’ recurring profit is 190 billion yen for fiscal 2011. The firm tries to improve the margin for steel business as the top priority task. The firm targets 100 billion yen of the parent company’s recurring profit for the full year compared with 80 billion yen for fiscal 2010.