VISCAS to Post Higher Profit in F2009

VISCAS Corporation, which is joint high voltage electric cable maker of Furukawa Electric and Fujikura, plans to post 4.6 billion yen of recurring profit with 85 billion yen of sales for fiscal 2009 started April. The firm tries to increase the recurring profit by 500 million yen from fiscal 2008.

The firm plans to ship around 30,000 tonnes in copper weight of cable in fiscal 2009, which is lower than 31,000-32,000 tonnes in fiscal 2008. The firm expects the main plant of Ichihara, Chiba would keep high level production while the cable joint parts making offshore subsidiaries improve the operation rate.

The firm estimates the recurring profit is 4.1 billion yen for fiscal 2008, which is around 30% higher than fiscal 2007 while the sales are 90-91 billion yen as same as fiscal 2007. The firm sees the higher profitable products shipment for Middle East contributed to the higher profit.

The outlook for fiscal 2009 could be lower both for sales and profit when the figures include a numbers of potential orders. The firm has no deferment and cancellation for existing order yet but the firm concerns potential downturn when some offshore electricity network building projects are postponed under recession.

The Ichihara plant, which is main base for export high voltage cable, finished construction of an additional line for insulation and extrusion. The plant is in test operation for the new line and will launch the commercial operation in July-September ramping up to full capacity operation in and after October. With the new line, the plant expands the production capacity for cross-linked polyethylene vinyl sheath cable by around 20% in copper weight.

The firm keeps full capacity operation at the Taiwanese subsidiary for cable joint parts while the firm recently started commercial production at the parts plant in Shenyang, which was established in 2007. The parts business represents around 20% of total sales of VISCAS Corporation. The subsidiaries supply the parts for local markets.