Japanese steelmaker Kobe Steel Ltd (Kobe) has issued its financial results for the fiscal year 2010-11 that ended on March 31.
Net income of Kobe Steel was JPY 52.94 billion ($643.43 million) for the given period, compared with a net income of JPY 6.3 billion in the previous fiscal year. Net sales revenues in FY 2010-2011 were JPY 1.86 trillion ($22.59 billion), up 11.2 percent year on year, while sales of its iron and steel segment rose by 13.25 percent year on year to JPY 840.38 billion ($10.22 billion), thanks to the strong steel demand in Japan and overseas markets throughout FY 2010-2011, in comparison to the previous fiscal year when the economy began to recover following the ‘Lehman Shock'.
Kobe sells 6.38 million mt of steel products in FY 2010-2011
Kobe Steel produced 7.6 million mt of crude steel in FY 2010-2011, compared with 6.57 million mt in the previous fiscal year. Kobe's steel products sales volume in the given period was 6.38 million mt, up from 5.57 million mt in FY2009-2010.
Regarding the economic outlook, Kobe Steel said, "Japan's economy in the nine months ended December 31, 2010 saw a pause in the pace of recovery due to a retrenchment in economic measures and the effect of the high yen from the third quarter (October-December). However, on the back of the improvement in overseas economies, domestic conditions on the whole continued to gradually recover. In overseas markets, too, the Chinese economy expanded and the United States and Europe continued to gradually recover."