Japan 3 Stainless Makers Post Profits, 2 Makers Losses for 1Q F2010

Among Japanese 5 major stainless steel makers, Nippon Steel & Sumikin Stainless Steel Corporation and Nippon Yakin Kogyo posted consolidated recurring losses for April-June while other 3 makers gained recurring profits. Sales volume widely recovered year-on-year at all 5 makers but margin improvement represented different among 5 makers.

Nisshin Steel’s stainless steel business unit increased non-consolidated production volume by 55.6% year-on-year and the sales volume by 44.4%. The business unit posted recurring profit at 1 billion yen for April-June and forecasts 5 billion yen for April-September. Meanwhile, the firm estimates the sales volume would decrease by 10,000 tonnes to 120,000 tonnes for July-September compared with April-June. Hot coil export for China is likely to decrease.

Nippon Metal Industry regained 3-month consolidated recurring profit after 7 quarters. The sales volume increased by 88% year-on-year and the domestic sales value expanded by 2.1 times to 17.3 billion yen. The export volume decreased by 11% since the firm tried to select profitable orders. Meanwhile, the export value increased by 30% to 8 billion yen.

Nippon Kinzoku gained year-on-year higher consolidated sales and profits for April-June. In the same period of fiscal 2009, order volume decreased due to stainless steel demand decline and high material costs. These negative factors were solved for April-June 2010. Order volume increased for ultra thin stainless steel products adopted to digital appliances and cutting products in response to export recovery of special steel flat bar.