Better Profitability for Japan Major Nonferrous Metal Smelters

Japanese nonferrous smelters improve the profitability. Sumitomo Metal Mining to post 2.3 times of consolidated recurring profit for fiscal 2009 ending March 2010. Nippon Mining & Metals expects 51% higher recurring profit. Mitsui Mining & Smelting, Dowa Holdings and Toho Zinc expect to post profit after loss in fiscal 2008. Higher metals’ price improves the profitability.

The smelters reported more than 20% lower sales in April-December 2009 from same period of 2008 due to lower metals’ price, higher raw materials cost and higher yen rate. However, their profitability improves in the second half of fiscal 2009 due to better demand and metals’ price.

Nippon Mining & Metals posted 39% lower recurring profit in April-December 2009 from same period of 2008. The firm expects higher profit for fiscal 2009 from fiscal 2008 due to higher profit in the second half. Sumitomo Metal Mining posted 8% lower recurring profit for April-December 2009 from same period of 2008 while the firm posted 41% higher operating profit. Mitsui Mining & Smelting reported the parts manufacturing unit turned into black in October-December 2009. Mitsubishi Materials reported 20.3 billion yen of recurring profit for April-December 2009 partly due to loss of SUMCO Corporation.