TOKYO: Nippon Steel, Japan’s top steel producer, posted a 23.3% decrease in net profit in the first quarter of the 2023/2024 fiscal year to 177 billion yen ($1.24 billion) on sluggish steel demand, it said on Friday.
Analysts surveyed by Refinitiv had forecast Nippon Steel’s net profit at 73.8 billion yen.
Its peer JFE Holdings, Japan’s second-biggest steel producer, said this week its first-quarter net profit fell by 29% to 59.6 billion yen.
JFE has cut its full-year forecast of crude steel output to 24.6 million metric tons, from an earlier expected 25 million metric tons, and said recovery in China’s steel market could be delayed until early next year.
($1 = 142.4700 yen) (Reporting by Katya Golubkova; Editing by Tom Hogue)
