Asahi Glass Co. has lowered its group profit estimates for the year to December 2006 partly because the firm is cutting shipments of glass substrates for LCD due to an overhaul of production facilitie…
Asahi Glass Co. has lowered its group profit estimates for the year to December 2006 partly because the firm is cutting shipments of glass substrates for LCD due to an overhaul of production facilities, the company said 1 November 2006. The firm now expects to report a net profit of JPY 76 billion for the year, down from the previous forecast of JPY 80 billion. Estimated operating profit was lowered to JPY 135 billion from JPY 145 billion, and the recurring profit projection was cut to JPY 130 billion from JPY 136 billion. Falls in prices of glass for cathode-ray tubes and mobile phone parts are also behind the less favorable profit estimates, Asahi Glass said. The firm kept its group sales estimate unchanged at JPY 1.6 trillion. For the January-September 2006 period, Asahi Glass reported a group net profit of JPY 64,520 million, up 1.0% from the same period of 2005, partly thanks to the strong performance of its electronic devices and display businesses. Operating profit rose 10.0% to 100,868 million JPY, and sales totaled JPY 1,201,029 million, up 8.9%.