Mitsui Mining & Smelting to Post Wider Net Loss

Mitsui Mining & Smelting announced on Wednesday the firm will post 72 billion yen of consolidated net loss for the year ending March 2009 compared with estimated 35 billion yen as of January. The firm posts impairment loss for packaging materials for semiconductor. The firm decided not to distribute yearend dividend. The firm tries to improve the profitability through restructuring of the production network.

The firm expanded the production capacity of packaging materials in years to meet strong demand. However, the price sharply decreased for the materials including tape automated bonding and chip on film recently.

The firm posted 17.7 billion yen of impairment loss for the year ended March 2008. The firm tried to improve the profitability through job cut. The firm decided to post additional 10.5 billion yen of impairment loss for the year ending March 2009.

The firm consolidates the packaging materials operation into No.2 plant in Shimonoseki, Yamaguchi while the firm now produces the materials in No.1 plant in Shimonoseki and Omuta plant, in Fukuoka. The Shimonoseki plant focuses on 3-layered tape automated bonding and 2-layered chip on film.

The firm expects the firm can regain profitability through the restructuring. However, the firm also studies additional actions to improve the profit and cash generation ability.