Nippon Steel ups profit forecast

Nippon Steel Corp. said Thursday it has raised its profit forecasts for the first half of the business year and will pay a ¥5 per share dividend for the April-September period, up ¥1 from a year earlier.

The steelmaker now expects group net and pretax profits of ¥170 billion and ¥280 billion, respectively, compared with ¥160 billion and ¥270 billion estimated in April, saying demand for steel, especially the high-end type, has been firm in Japan.

Compared with the same period a year ago, the company chalked up ¥164.1 billion and ¥268.9 billion in group net and pretax profits.

Nippon Steel also hiked its full-year group net profit estimate to ¥365 billion from ¥350 billion. The sales forecast for the year to March 31 was raised to ¥4.8 trillion from ¥4.76 trillion.

Those are higher than the group net profit of ¥351.1 billion it logged on sales of ¥4.30 trillion the previous year.