Kobe Steel posts 63.19 billion yen profit in FY2017; aluminium & copper sale increases 8.1%

Kobe Steel announced consolidated financial results for fiscal 2017. The reported profit of 63.19 billion yen for the year ended March 31, from a loss of 23.05 billion yen a year earlier.

Net sales increased more than 10 per cent to 1.9 trillion yen in FY2017. “Solid demand in steel, aluminium and copper, as well as construction machineries helped boost our sales,” Senior Managing Executive Officer Yoshihiko Katsukawa told a news conference.

Kobe Steel, a supplier of aluminium parts to manufacturers of cars, planes and trains, said that the sale of aluminium rolled products was higher than the previous year.” Although demand for can stock for beverage cans was similar to the previous year, demand in the automotive sector increased.”

Aluminium and copper sales increased 8.1 per cent to 349.5 billion yen in FY2017. Kobe Steel reported ordinary income of 11.8 billion yen.

“The data problem has cut our profit in the steel segment due to reduced orders, but the aluminium and copper segment has not experienced weak orders because of tight supply,” Kazuaki Kawahara said.

Aluminium and copper sales are e forecast to increase compared with fiscal 2017. For the fiscal 2018, sales are estimated to be 385 billion yen.

In October last year, Japanese steel and aluminium product manufacturer admitted that it had falsified data regarding aluminium and copper products.