Osaka Titanium Technologies to Post Loss for F2010

Osaka Titanium Technologies announced on Wednesday the consolidated recurring profit was 435 million yen for fiscal 2009 ended March 2010, which was 96.9% lower than profit in fiscal 2008. The sales decreased by 38.7% to 31.9 billion yen due to domestic lower sales for sponge titanium. The firm expects 3.8 billion yen of recurring loss for fiscal 2010 due to lower selling price and higher depreciation for Kishiwada polysilicon plant while the titanium demand recovers slightly.

The titanium unit’s sales decreased by 47.9% to 18.857 million yen in fiscal 2009 from fiscal 2008. The demand was slow for airplane, domestic plant and steel additives. The semiconductor and high performance materials unit’s sales decreased by 17.8% to 13.05 million yen due to lower selling price while the polysicilon plant kept full capacity operation.

The firm expects the titanium unit’s sales will increase by 6.1% to 20 billion yen for fiscal 2010 from fiscal 2009 due to higher demand for airplane and domestic users. The semiconductor and high performance materials unit’s sales will decrease by 5% to 12.4 billion yen.

The firm concluded the sponge titanium price negotiation with contract users to decrease by 15-25% for rolled titanium makers for fiscal 2010 from fiscal 2009. The firm already agreed with offshore rolled titanium makers to decrease the price by 10-20% for 2010 shipment.