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Reuters news agency in Tokyo on February 5, Japan’s biggest steelmaker, Nippon Steel, cut its annual net loss estimate for the fiscal year’s net loss by nearly 30% on Friday as rising export prices and recovery in demand from car makers and other manufacturers led to a sharp rebound in earnings.
At a news conference just held, Katsuhiro Miyamoto, executive vice president of Nippon Railway, said: “The company’s soaring export prices to Southeast Asia and other regions have significantly increased our profit margins.”
“Downstream manufacturing demand for steel rebounded markedly after October,” he added.
The world’s third-largest steelmaker’s forecast for this fiscal year (as of March 31 2020) fell to 120 billion yen ($1.1 billion) from its November estimate of 170 billion yen ($1.1 billion).
Katsuhiro Miyamoto revealed that, in response to the weak demand during the outbreak period that began early last year, Nippon Steel temporarily shut down six blast furnaces last year and cut production capacity by 32%, but three blast furnaces have recently resumed production, reducing the percentage of affected capacity to 13%.
The latest crude steel latest crude steel production forecast is 33.2 million tons, higher than previously planned 32.7 million tons, but even the latest crude steel production forecast still has a 21% decline from a year earlier.
Katsuhiro Miyamoto said the global steel market will continue to be robust, supported by strong demand from China, while the high probability of domestic steel markets in Japan will be tight given low inventories.
Raw material prices such as iron ore and coking coal are also expected to remain high due to strong demand in China, he added.
Kobe Steel Ltd., its rival, also raised its annual net income forecast to zero from an earlier forecast net loss of 15 billion yen, thanks mainly to a warming of demand for downstream auto steel and Kobe steel's own cost-cutting and efficiency measures.
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- [Editor:wenxin]
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