Kobe Steel Enjoys Higher Profits for Aluminium & Copper

Kobe Steel announced on Thursday the firm enjoyed sales and profits expansion for the aluminium & copper business unit in fiscal 2006 ended March 2007. The consolidated net sales increased by 30.3% to 397.3 billion yen and the operating profit increased by 48.4% to 34.6 billion yen for the unit in fiscal 2006 over previous year. The sales jumped up due to upsurge of aluminium and copper metal prices. The operating profit expanded to 1.5 times from fiscal 2005 thanks to higher inventory valuation.The consolidated net sales increased by 11.1% to 168 billion yen for rolled aluminium products, by 53.2% to 157 billion yen for rolled copper products, by 26.1% to 27.5 billion yen for casting and forging products and by 52.4% to 44.8 billion yen for the rest.The sales volume of rolled aluminium products decreased by 1.5% to 328,600 tonnes, down by 1.7% to 291,400 tonnes for plate and keeping flat at 37,200 tonnes for extrusion. The sales volume increased by 6% to 66,400 tonnes for copper sheet and strip and by 5.1% to 80,800 tonnes for copper tube.In fiscal 2007, the firm plans to increase the sales volume of aluminium plate to 307,700 tonnes, aluminium extrusion to 39,100 tonnes, copper sheet and strip to 73,600 tonnes and copper tube to 83,900 tonnes.