Sumitomo Metal Mining Targets 15 Billion Yen Profit for Materials Business

Sumitomo Metal Mining plans to secure 15 billion yen of operating profit for electronic and advanced materials unit for fiscal 2012 ending March 2013 compared with estimated 1 billion yen for fiscal 2009. The firm tries to improve the profitability through 21 billion yen investment for growth in 3 years while the firm restructures the loss making businesses.

The firm expands the sales volume of nickel hydroxide, which is used for positive electrode material of nickel hydride battery, to 1.6 times of volume in fiscal 2009. The firm also expands the sales volume of lithium nickel oxide, which is used for positive electrode material of lithium ion battery, to 6 times of the volume in fiscal 2009.

The firm expands the battery materials business by utilizing the production bases as Japanese largest maker of nickel and cobalt. The firm also expands commodity grade positive electrode materials by developing new materials with cobalt, nickel and manganese.

The firm also expands the sapphire substrate business when the demand is expected to grow by annual 20% for backlight of large liquid crystal and illumination applications. The firm expands multilayer ceramic capacitor material by developing Chinese market. The firm also expands the sales volume by 70% for bonding wire and by 65% for 2 layer flexible substrate in fiscal 2012 from fiscal 2009.