Japan 6 Electric Cable Makers; 3 with Higher Operating Profits in 1H

Japanese 6 major electric cable makers announced their financial results for the first half of fiscal 2007 ended September, 5 of which posted higher consolidated recurring profit compared with the corresponding period of F2006 while 3 of which gained higher consolidated operating profits.The all 6 makers enjoyed favorable sales and profits for their power cable businesses. Sumitomo Electric Industries (SEI) posted operating profit of 4.8 billion yen for the power cable segment in 1H07, up by 35% from 1H06. Fujikura’s operating profit increased by 31% to 4.2 billion yen for power cables while Hitachi Cable’s operating profit increased by 12% to 5.5 billion yen. SWCC Showa Holdings and Mitsubishi Cable Industries covered their operating losses in other segments with favorable results in their power cable units.SEI, Furukawa Electric and Fujikura were suffered from slower sales of optical network components in 1H07 when the demand widely declined for Fiber-to-the-Home market in Japan. SEI’s operating profit dropped down by 94% to 200 million yen for the telecommunication segment in 1H07 compared with 1H06. Furukawa Electric posted 33% lower operating profit for the telecom unit while Fujikura posted 13% lower operating profit.As to electronic material businesses, Fujikura posted operating loss of 1.3 billion yen for the electronics & auto segment in 1H07 due to the severe price down of flexible printed circuit (FPC), which is one of Fujikura’s main products. Hitachi Cable’s operating profit was also impacted by 2 billion yen due to price down of its electronics products such as tape auto bonding (TAB) for liquid crystal displays.