Kobe Steel’s Al & Cu Unit to Target 20B Yen Operating Profit in F2010

Kobe Steel’s senior managing director Hiroyuki Nakayama, who is president of Aluminium and Copper unit, said the unit targets 10-15 billion yen of recurring profit for fiscal 2010 ending March 2011 under the next 3-year plan. He tries to post more than 20 billion yen of operating profit for the unit by expanding the business mainly for automobile and information and communication. The unit tries to expand the original products business under the 3-year plan through fiscal 2008. However, the unit could post 7-8 billion yen of operating profit and less than 15 billion yen of recurring profit for fiscal 2008 due to higher raw materials cost and higher depreciation under tax system revision. Mr. Nakayama said the unit seeks raw materials and energy saving and better labor productivity for next 3-year plan. The unit also tries to improve cash flow by unit wide effort including reducing inventory in process. The unit also focuses on automobile and information and communication industries as the strategic targets for the sales and products development. The unit tries to expand the automotive panel material output when the demand is expected to double by 2015.