Ahresty’s Die Cast Order Receipt to Lower than Expected for F2009

Ahresty, Japanese major maker of aluminium die casting, estimates its die casting order receipt volume for fiscal 2009 (April 2009-March 2010) would decrease by 6 percentage points from initially expected. Arata Takahashi, president of Ahresty, explained at a press conference the order receipt volume was expected to recover 68% level compared with the peak in fiscal 2007, as of the beginning of fiscal 2009. However, he said, the actual demand recovery is slow and the order receipt is likely to reach 62% level of fiscal 2007. Ahresty posted revenue at 24 billion yen and operating loss at 1.1 billion yen for the first half of fiscal 2009. The revenue shrank by 48% year-to-year.

Ahresty’s die casting business unit expects for annual revenue at 52.4 billion yen and annual operating loss at 1.15 billion yen for fiscal 2009. The annual revenue would lower by 4.7 billion yen (8%) from previously expected. Meanwhile, annual operating loss would narrower by 1.39 billion yen (54%) from previously estimated thanks to cost cut efforts including layoff.

Order receipt volume is forecasted to become the half level compared with the previous estimation at Higashi-Matsuyama plant in Saitama, Japan, where underbody parts are manufactured. On the other hand, productivity has improved at Tochigi plant, Japan, and operating loss has shrunk.

In the aluminium business unit, order receipt volume of secondary aluminium alloy at Kumagaya plant, Japan was 40% in the first half of fiscal 2009 compared with the same period of fiscal 2008. Mr. Takahashi said the order volume was below the breakeven point. The business unit posted 69.7% year-to-year lower revenue at 1.09 billion yen and operating loss at 82 million yen in the first half of fiscal 2009.