Sumitomo Metal Mining Brass & Copper Realizes Increased Revenue and Profits
Sumitomo Metal Mining Brass & Copper Co., Ltd., Tokyo, realized its increased revenue and profits in the settlement of fiscal 2003, the year ending in March 2004; the sales were 7.255 billion yen, up 7% from the previous year; the ordinary profit was 765 million yen, up 62% from the same period; the profits for the period were 772 million yen, up 67% from the same period. The amount of sales was 18,574 tonnes, down 2% from the same period. Thanks to the firm demand for the automobile-related and IT having recovered since last fall, the sales were good. Furthermore, thanks to shift of production to high value-added products and reduction of the costs, the income increased.
The firm has promoted its restructuring specializing in high value-added products since 2001; it has promoted enlargement of coil by 50%, speedup of 1 line for plating of tin, and increase of the line of surface treatment of hot rolled copper foil, etc.
1 line for plating of tin has recently been under full operation to nearly 300 tonnes as the monthly production. In particular, since the firm specialized in thin products, the order entries of the products with less than 0.2 mm thick increased sharply. So the production of hot rolled copper foils has been good thanks to the brisk demand for the IT-related. Furthermore, thanks to introduction of production management system from April, the time of delivery was 2 weeks-a month; the rate of keeping the time became about 90%.
On the other hand, regarding the business results of the current fiscal year, Mr. Kaneko, president of the firm, said that the business results in fiscal 2004 would be as good as the previous year if the current good business conditions went well. In future, the firm is planning to sell extensively the crystal grain miniaturization material of brass strip, which the firm developed jointly with Faculty of Engineering, Kobe University, to users, etc.
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