TOKYO (Reuters) – Nippon Steel, Japan's largest steelmaker, on Thursday revised its full-year net profit forecast to 310 billion yen ($2 billion) from a previous estimate of 340 billion yen due to an inventory valuation loss due to weak raw material prices.
Even as Nippon Steel, the world's fourth-largest steelmaker, revised its forecast for the fiscal year ending March, it expected to maintain its full-year dividend target of 160 yen each.
Its net profit for the six-month period ended Sept. 30 fell 19% to 243.4 billion yen compared with a year ago.
The company reiterated its plans to complete the US Steel acquisition deal before the end of the year. Nippon Steel reiterated its timing after Republican Donald Trump, who said he would block the deal, won the US presidential election.
The Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) has extended its review of the $15 billion deal until the end of December. Nippon Steel said on Thursday that the deal was “progressing toward completion.”
To get the deal, Nippon Steel has made social security and investment pledges and engaged powerful unions, and promised to sell shares in a US steelmaking joint venture if it succeeds in the buyout.
($1 = 154.0800 yen)