NSSC Posts 2.8 Times Higher Profit for 1H

Nippon Steel & Sumikin Stainless Steel announced on Thursday the firm posted 28.045 billion yen of consolidated recurring profit for April-September, which was 2.8 times higher than same period of 2006. The net profit increased to 2.9 times at 16.763 billion yen with 48.5% higher sales at 215.14 billion yen. The firm gained from higher nickel ingot price including inventory valuation gain along with firm demand. The firm shipped 495,000 tonnes of stainless steel products in the first half year, which was 16,000 tonnes lower than same period of 2006. The firm reported the shipment of higher valued products including NSSC180 and chrome series products when the users shift from nickel series to chrome series products. However, the firm said the inventory gain represented more than half of the recurring profit and the firm still needs to improve the selling price. The firm expects the inventory loss for the second half year due to plunge of nickel ingot price. The firm could be suffered from slower building demand. The firm tries to expand the high valued products sales including export to cover slower demand for commodity grade products.