Japanese steelmaker Kobe Steel Ltd (Kobe) has issued its financial results for the first nine months ended December 31 of the fiscal year 2016-17.
For the given period, Kobe Steel has reported a net loss of JPY 36.47 billion ($323.6 million), compared to a net loss of JPY 13.85 billion in the same period of the previous financial year. The company's consolidated net sales revenues for the first nine months of the current fiscal year amounted to JPY 1.22 trillion ($10.79 billion), down 10 percent year on year.
Kobe Steel produced 5.27 million mt of crude steel in the period in question, down 5.2 percent year on year. Kobe's steel product sales volume in the given period decreased by 0.9 percent to 4.40 million mt, compared to the first nine months of the financial year 2015-16.
Kobe Steel stated that in the first nine months of the financial year 2016-17 its sales volume of steel products decreased on year-on-year basis. Although the domestic sales volume to the automotive sector was firm, the export volume declined. Sales prices went down compared with the same period of the previous year, due to the strong yen and the fall in primary raw material prices until the second quarter of the given year.