Asahi Kasei reports modest rise in profits

Tokyo - Asahi Kasei has posted a net profit of ¥105.7 billion (€781.7 million) in the full fiscal year 2014 - ended 31 March 2015 -  up 4.3-percent from previous year’s ¥101.3 billion.

Consolidated net sales increased by 4.7 percent from a year ago to ¥1,986.4 billion, and operating income increased 10.2 percent to ¥157.9 billion.

The US economy had continued to recover and there were signs of improvement in Europe during fiscal 2014, said Asahi, though it noted slower growth in China and other emerging countries and increasing risks to the global economy due to political instability in some regions.

As for the Japanese economy, consumer spending softened during the early part of the fiscal year due to the effect of the consumption tax increase.

However, it said, in the latter part of the fiscal year Japan continued on a path of gradual recovery with the weaker yen and lower oil prices leading to improved corporate performance.

While Asahi’s performance polymers benefitted from the weaker yen and sales of engineering plastics were firm, its synthetic rubber unit was impacted by low market prices for general-purpose products.