Kobe Steel’s Consolidated Recurring Profit Drops by 83.1% in F2009

Kobe Steel announced on Wednesday the consolidated recurring profit decreased by 83.1% to 10.2 billion yen in fiscal 2009 ended in March 2010 compared with fiscal 2008 while the net profit returned into the black of 6.3 billion yen though the firm estimated net loss of 3 billion yen for fiscal 2009. Mr. Tomoyuki Kaya, Kobe Steel’s vice president, said the firm doesn’t announce financial forecasts for fiscal 2010 since the firm is still in price negotiations with raw material suppliers and steel product users.

In January-March 2010, the recurring profit increased to 34.2 billion yen from 20.2 billion yen for October-December 2009. In October 2009-March 2010, the profit turned into the black of 54.5 billion yen from the red of 44.2 billion yen in April-September 2009.

The steel business unit posted annual operating loss at 24.3 billion yen in fiscal 2009 though which gained operating profit at 77.7 billion yen in fiscal 2008. The unit’s steel sales volume decreased by 9.8% to 5.57 million tonnes. Averaged selling price lowered by 23,100 yen to 76,400 yen per tonne. The export ratio increased by 2.9 percentage points to 24.3%.

The non-consolidated crude steel production is forecasted at 7.6-7.8 million tonnes in fiscal 2010, increasing from 6.57 million tonnes of fiscal 2009. Kobe Steel plans to raise the investing rate in iron ore mines to total 20% from present 7-8%, including construction of pellet plants with raw material suppliers.