(Minews) - Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal Corp (NSSMC) reported stronger financial results in the April-December period on increased steel shipments and prices.
Consolidated net sales for the nine months stood at ¥4.03 trillion ($39.2 billion), up 31% year-on-year, NSSMC said on Thursday January 30.
Operating profit reached ¥221.6 billion, reversing a loss of ¥5.97 billion in the previous period.
Net income amounted to ¥192.7 billion, a huge improvement from the previously recorded loss of ¥151.9 billion.
This was mainly due to the incorporation of a gain on the sale of investments in securities and a loss on inactive facilities, Japan’s biggest steelmaker noted.
NSSMC sold roughly 31.4 million tonnes of steel products during the first three quarters of the 2013 fiscal year, up from about 30.2 million tonnes in the corresponding period a year earlier.
Even though it has not disclosed a sole figure for the whole period, the steelmaker said that its average selling price in October-December last year was ¥86,700 per tonne, which compares with ¥78,100 per tonne in the corresponding quarter of 2012.
Strong demand
Global market conditions remained “severe” amid stagnant demand for steel stemming from China’s oversupply, but steel exports from Japan continued to show “signs of recovery”, NSSMC said.
In Japan, demand remained strong during the April-December period.
“Reconstruction demand also stayed firm and economic policies began to show their full effects in the civil engineering and construction fields,” the company said.
Steel demand from the Japanese manufacturing industry increased as well, mainly on the back of a recovery in capital investment and a favourable turnaround in business confidence.
