On February 4, Japan-based Sumitomo Metal Industries, Ltd. (Sumitomo Metals) announced that in the first three quarters of the Japanese fiscal year 2010-11 ending March 31, 2011, it registered a net profit of JPY 34.93 billion ($428 million) over a total sales revenue of JPY 1.05 trillion ($12.87 billion), with the latter indicating an increase of 13.1 percent year on year. In the corresponding period of the previous fiscal year, Sumitomo Metals had recorded a net loss of JPY 57.48 billion.
Meanwhile, in the third quarter of the fiscal year in question, Sumitomo Metals posted a net profit of JPY 39 million ($477,885), compared to a net loss of approximately JPY 10.8 billion in the year-ago period.
Assessing the market situation in the third quarter of FY 2010-11, Sumitomo Metals said that it faced a difficult business environment, compared with the same quarter of the previous fiscal year, due to a surge in raw material prices and other costs. Under such an environment, Sumitomo Metals continued to make efforts to improve profitability through further cost reduction and other measures. The financial results in the third quarter under review, however, ended up with a slight improvement compared with the same period of a year ago, due to deteriorated profitability caused by temporary production instability at one of the company's blast furnaces and a delayed recovery in the sales environment.
In FY 2010-11 as a whole, Sumitomo Metals foresees it will achieve a net sales revenue of JPY 1.44 trillion and a net profit of JPY 25 billion ($306.37 million), down from JPY 60 billion estimated earlier.
As SteelOrbis has previously reported, Sumitomo Metals and Japan's largest steelmaker Nippon Steel have agreed to commence consideration of the integration of the two companies' entire businesses, with completion targeted for October 1, 2012.