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World's fifth biggest steelmaker Japanese Nippon Steel's annual profit may beat the company's recent sharply upgraded forecast, as steel prices outside Japan continue to rally on strong demand while iron ore prices have plunged. Nippon Steel's Executive Vice President Takahiro Mr Mori told Reuters "Our overseas businesses have been outperforming our expectations in July and August. The situation in the US is better than we had anticipated which could be a factor for an upside of our performance. We had expected the US steel market to peak in July, but it has remained tight, with hot coil prices staying above USD 2,000 a tonne.”
Still, slower production by automakers poses a risk to the outlook for steelmakers. Toyota Motor recently said it will slash global production for September by 40% from its previous plan due to a global chip crunch, although it maintained its annual sales and production targets. Mr Mori told "The impact on our financial results will be limited as carmakers said they will make up for production cuts later this financial year.”
Earlier this month, Nippon Steel raised its annual profit guidance by 54% as solid global demand boosts steel prices and earnings of its units in India, the United States and Brazil. Nippon Steel forecast that net income would be a record JPY 370 billion (USD 3.4 billion) for the year through March 2022. That would represent a dramatic turnaround from losses over the past two years.