Kitz Suffered from Worse Profitability in F2006

Kitz Corporation announced on Thursday its sales of copper fabricated products expanded to 41.895 billion yen in fiscal 2006 ended March 2007, 2.3 times of fiscal 2005. The sales jumped up thanks to price up and steady demand of the products.However, operating profit for the business declined by 76.1% to 159 million yen in fiscal 2006 from fiscal 2005. The firm failed to raise the selling price of copper products timely when copper price soared up in April-May 2006. The firm posted operating losses in April-September 2006 as a result. The firm could not recover the profit through fiscal 2006 as high as previous year even though the firm regained operating profit after October.Kitz targets copper rolled product sales at 41 billion yen for fiscal 2007, down by only 2% from fiscal 2006. The firm tries to keep the moderate price level and to expand sales of Kicho brand products, which was acquired by Kitz in 2006. The firm also aims to improve profitability by sales expansion of high value added products such as cadmium free brass bar and lead free brass bar.