Japan Major Electric Wire Makers Post Higher Profit

Five electric wire makers out of Japanese major 6 posted higher consolidated recurring profit for April-December from same period of 2005 under better sales for electric wire and cable and better profitability for communication business. They gained also from higher selling price when they passed higher cost price of copper ingot when copper price kept high level since July. The majors except for Fujikura kept the full year outlook to March 2007. However, they could be suffered from inventory loss due to lower copper ingot price. The demand of electric wire and cable was firm for construction applications including building, housing and plant. They succeeded to pass the higher copper price on the selling price when the ingot price kept more than 900,000 yen per tonne since July. All the majors posted higher sales and profit for the units. They also gained from higher sales for machinery and winding wire. Sumitomo Electric Industries, Furukawa Electric and Fujikura gained from firm communication demand. Sumitomo Electric posted 1.8 times of operating profit at 2.7 billion yen for the unit for April-December from same period of 2005. Furukawa Electric posted 4.6 times of profit at 9.7 billion yen and Fujikura posted 1.8 times of profit at 10.4 billion yen. The contrast was widened between the top 3 and bottom 3 firms for the units.