Kobe Steel’s Al & Cu Unit Posts 13.4B yen Recurring Profit

Kobe Steel announced on Thursday the consolidated recurring profit of the aluminium & copper unit was 13.4 billion yen in April-December 2010 compared with 100 million yen of recalling loss in same period of 2009. The profit increased due to higher sales volume of rolled aluminium, aluminium casting, forging and copper tube. The sales increased by 21.9% to 229.4 billion yen due to higher aluminium and copper ingot price.

The consolidated recurring profit of aluminium & copper unit increased to 3.6 billion yen in October-December from 3.4 billion yen in July-September while the profit was lower than 6.2 billion yen in April-June. The aluminium products sales were firm for automobile, air conditioner and liquid crystal display manufacturing facilities in October-December.

The copper sheet and strip demand decreased since October due to inventory adjustment in semiconductor industry while the copper tube demand was firm due to increase in air conditioner sales.

Kobe Steel expects 300 million yen of consolidated recurring loss for aluminium & copper unit in January-March 2011 while the firm left the forecast unchanged for the unit at 300 billion yen of sales and 13 billion yen of recurring profit for fiscal 2010 ending March 2011 as announced in October 2010.