December 02, 2008

Sumitomo Industries net profit in 2007-08 down by 20% YoY

Japan's third largest steelmaker Sumitomo Metal Industries Ltd said that its net profit in the fiscal year ended in March 2008 fell by 20% YoY after higher procurement and depreciation costs more than offset the impact of higher sales and delivery prices.

Sumitomo Metal posted a net profit of JPY 180.5 billion (USD 1.7 billion), down from JPY 226.7 billion a year earlier. Pretax profit fell by 9% to JPY 298.2 billion. Revenue rose to 8.9% to JPY 1.74 trillion as crude steel output reached 13.62 million tonnes, up from 13.38 million.

Sumitomo Metal said that the higher procurement costs of materials such as coke, steel scrap and ore subtracted some JPY 104 billion from pretax profit. The average price of its steel products stood at JPY 105,700 per tonne, up from JPY 100,000 a year earlier.

In February, the company forecast a year to March 2008 net profit of JPY 190 billion a pretax profit of JPY 280 billion and revenue of JPY 1.73 trillion.