Japan 6 Rare Metal Firms’ Profits Jump in April-December

Japanese 5 listed firms dealing with rare metals enjoyed favorable sales and profits in the 1st-3rd financial quarters to December 2006 with another listed rare metal company, Furuya Metal which posted good financial results in the half year to December 2006. The 6 companies gained better profits thanks to active demand for rare metal products and higher selling prices to reflect rare metal price upsurge. Operating profit doubled at Nihon Seiko and expanded by 80% at Asahi Pretec Corporation in 1Q-3Q from the same period of 2005. Alconix gained 60% higher operating profit for its electronic & functional product business in 1Q-3Q than annual results in fiscal 2005. All of the 6 companies posted 20% higher or more profits compared with the same period of previous year.Asahi Pretec Corp, a rare metal recycling corporation, increased its collective volume of rare metal scrap such as electronic materials, dental materials and jewelries. Alconix enjoyed active sales of rare metals and rare earths including titanium sponge, tungsten and molybdenum used for automobiles and cellular phones.Furuya Metal, who supplies industrial rare metal products, posted firm sales for oxide single crystal products for cell phones and melting equipment such as crucibles for rare metals. Nihon Seiko owed the sales increase to high price of antimony ingot and active sales of antimony trioxide. Nippon Tungsten and Toho Kinzoku enjoyed favorable demand and profit for their tungsten and molybdenum products.