JX Advanced Metals raises full-year profit estimate on robust chip material demand

By Yuka Obayashi

TOKYO, Nov 9 (Reuters) - JX Advanced Metals 5016.T raised on Monday its net profit forecast for the year ending next March by 14%, citing robust demand for semiconductor materials amid the boom in AI servers and a stronger outlook for copper prices.

The company now expects net profit of 160 billion yen ($1 billion), up from its August forecast of 141 billion yen.

• JX raised its copper price assumption to 619 cents per pound, from its previous forecast of 586 cents

• For the April-September first half, net profit jumped 128% from a year earlier to 97.9 billion yen.

• Profit from its basic materials business rose 136%, helped by higher average copper prices of 622 cents per pound, compared with 438 cents a year earlier

• Lower treatment and refining charges(TC/RC) reduced first-half profit from copper smelting by 1 billion yen, but a 3 billion yen benefit from improved sulphuric acid margins more than offset this, a company official said

• JX is still assessing its second-half refined copper production outlook while monitoring TC/RC negotiations, the official said

• JX President Yoichi Hayashi said geopolitical risks and global supply-chain disruptions had heightened the importance of securing raw materials

• The company will use its resource development, refining and recycling technologies, as well as investments and partnerships, to diversify raw material sources, he said

  
  

($1 = 158.2100 yen)