Air Water increased sales by 12.4% with operating income up 2.6%, ordinary profit up 8.3% and net profit for the term up 12.7% comparing with the previous year. Despite the sluggish growth of industrial gases due to the customer’s plant trouble in the on-site business for a blast furnace, the company as a whole marked the record-high earnings with the new consolidation in the medical, agricultural and food fields. 　

In terms of segmental sales, in place of the industrial gas business the medical field took the first place marking JPY170.8 billion. With regard to the industrial gas business which decreased sales and ordinary profit by 0.6%. While there was a steady delivery by both tank trucks and cylinders, the aforementioned on-site plant troubles and the power-rate hike caused a flat situation. The chemical-related sales increased by 10.8% thanks to the increased sales of quinone products of Kawasaki Kasei Chemicals and the market recovery of phthalic anhydride. With the lessened deficit of C-Chem Company, the ordinary profit turned out positively to be JPY1.9 billion (a deficit of JPY700 million last year).

　The sales of medical business increased by 31.5%. In addition to the new consolidation, there was a new large-scale project obtained in the SPD business, which brought the increased sales.
The sales of the energy-related business increased by 14.3%. The rise of the selling price of LPG and kerosene as well as the fuel change made by industrial users has contributed to the good result.
　The sales of the agriculture/food-related business increased by 12.9% with a profit up 18.1%, and that of logistics-related business increased by 5.9%. There was an increase in the delivery to convenience stores, and the car body production for trailers, etc. grew at a good pace. All the other categories including sea water, aerosol and electronics materials enjoyed increases in sales.

　The capital investment for the term amounted to JPY61.3 billion. For the subsequent term of 2018, they plan to invest JPY65.8 billion for new VSUs, Atsugi Logistic Center and Hofu and Onahama biomass power generating plants.

　Summing up the business prospect for this year, an expected sales for the first half will be JPY380 billion with an operating income of JPY18.5 billion, ordinary income of JPY 19.3 billion and net profit for the term of JPY 11.0 billion. Throughout the year these figures will become JPY 820 billion, JPY 48.5 billion, JPY 50 billion and JPY 28 billion respectively.
As for the prospect of the industrial gas business out of them, the sales is posted as JPY186 billion and the ordinary income as JPY19.0 billion.

The industrial gas has also been put again at the top position of the scale, and President Shirai described saying, “The industrial gas remains as the key business category of our company. The demand of gas on the footstep stays steady and we regard it as a good rebound of the customer’s on-site trouble which occurred in the previous year. Particularly carbon dioxide is expected to sell more as the expansion of Kawasaki Plant has completed and the demand will get tight further.
Furthermore, the growth in application and the enhancement of engineering will enrich the entire business performance all over divisions such as Quick Snow for the dry ice snow washing which is steadily growing with satisfactory delivery results.”

　As for the measures for the overseas business, he says, “We are going to deploy mainly with engineering, and build up our base in the US and Singapore as an Asian base.”
The year-end dividend is set at 38 yen with an addition of 21 yen along with the target of dividend payout ratio set at 30% of net profit.