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TOKYO, May 10 (Reuters) - Nippon Steel Corp said on Wednesday that its annual net profit rose 8.9% to 694
billion yen ($5.1 billion) for the year ended in March thanks to
higher margins after price increases, but forecast a slump in
profit for the current year.
The results beat the company's own profit forecast of 670
billion yen.
For the business year to March 2024, Japan's biggest
steelmaker expects its net profit to fall 46.7% to 370 billion
yen, falling short of a mean forecast of 416.6 billion yen by 11
analysts surveyed by Refinitiv.
The weaker profit was forecast due to an expected appraisal
loss on its inventories in light of lower prices of steelmaking
raw materials as well as restructuring losses, the company said.
Nippon Steel also said it will spend an additional 90
billion yen to boost its output capacity of high grade
non-oriented electrical steel sheet at two of its domestic steel
works.
The company will also start studies to shift to electric
arc furnace steelmaking from the current blast furnace at its
Kyushu Works Yawata Area in southern Japan and Setouchi Works
Hirohata Area in western Japan as candidate sites.
The move comes as part of its efforts to reduce carbon
dioxide emissions.
As steelmakers worldwide face pressure to cut emissions
to combat climate change, Nippon Steel has set itself a goal to
trim its CO2 emissions by 30% versus 2013 levels by 2030.
Shares of the company tanked more than 9% after the
forecast, underperforming the Nikkei 225 index which was
down 0.4%.
($1 = 135.0500 yen)
(Reporting by Yuka Obayashi; Editing by Kim Coghill)
