Japanese Major 3 Special Steel Makers Regain Profits for Oct-Dec 2009

Japanese major 6 special steel makers posted year-to-year lower consolidated sales and profits for April-December 2009. Meanwhile, for October-December, 3 companies of Hitachi Metals, Aichi Steel and Mitsubishi Steel Mfg recovered recurring profits and the other 3 makers decreased their recurring losses. The makers’ sales and profits have steadily improved quarter by quarter. The all 6 companies estimate year-to-year lower revenues for a full fiscal year ending in March 2010 with recurring losses at 3 of them.

The 9-month sales of the special steel business unit were 139.1 billion yen at Hitachi Metals, decreasing by 38% year-to-year, and 142.86 billion yen at Daido Steel, lower by 47%. The unit sales were 62.63 billion yen at Aichi Steel, lower by 45% year-to-year, and 62.41 billion yen at Sanyo Special Steel, decreasing by 54.5%. The unit sales were 16.3 billion yen at Mitsubishi Steel Mfg, lower by 73.3%, and 16.61 billion yen at Nippon Koshuha Steel, decreasing by 49.2%.

For 3 months of October-December, the sales increased by 9.8% at Hitachi Metals compared with July-September, by 11.6% at Daido Steel and by 15.9% at Aichi Steel.

For April-December, 2 companies posted year-to-year lower recurring profits and the other makers were suffered from recurring losses. Daido Steel’s recurring profit lowered by 58.4 billion yen due to lower sales and by 32.8 billion yen due to price down. Aichi Steel’s profit decreased by 15.6 billion yen due to price down and by 11 billion yen due to lower sales. Sanyo Special Steel lost 35.5 billion yen because of less sales volume and lower selling price. Nippon Koshuha Steel’s profit decreased by 5.7 billion yen due to less sales volume and by 1.9 billion yen due to lower sales price.