TNSC’s FY accounts showed decreases in sales by 1.3%, operating income by 12.4% and ordinary income by 13.0% respectively. The net profit, however, marked a considerable increase by 66.5% owing to the profit gained on sale of SDS and VAC in the amount of 6.7 billion yen. The dividend has been left unchanged at 6 yen per interim term and 12 yen per annum.

In terms of segments, the main business of industrial gases resulted in a decrease of income by 0.9% although there was a sign of recovery in oxygen and nitrogen for the steel-making and chemical industries as main users during the second half. Argon for the metal and welding industries was also sluggish with a decrease by 3.4%. The machinery and equipment business also dropped down considerably by 24.4% due to the declining demand for large-scale facility investments like cryogenic air-separation plants. The welding/cutting equipment and material business grew at a good pace in both domestic and export sale with increased in income by 11.7%. The total sakes stayed nearly flat with a slight increase of 0.8% but the operating income decreased by 10.0%.

In the electronics-related segment, the domestic demand remained sluggish in such fields as semiconductor, liquid crystal panel and solar batteries. There was also a considerable decrease in facility investments.

The electronics material gases grew steadily in the export business to east Asian countries including Taiwan, China and Korea, but resulted in a decrease by 7.5% due to the domestic sluggish demand. The electronics-related equipment and construction business decreased by 3.1%, and the semiconductor processing equipment with the main device of MOCVD also dropped by half with 56.2% due to the postponed and reduced facility investments for LED production. The whole business resulted in decreases of income by 8.9% and operating income by 30%.

The facility investment stayed flat following the last year at 31.452 billion yen, but the loans and investments halved at 8.035 billion because there was no large-scale M&A.

Kenichi Kasuya, senior managing director expects the business of next year to increase by 5.6% in operating income and 1.6% in ordinary income, saying, “There will be some recovery in the field of industrial gases in spite of such uncertain factors as the exchange rates or the European currency problems.” However, he forecasts the corporate net profit to decrease by 17.9% as no special profit can be expected.