The sales revenue increased by 14.8%, core operating income by 37.2%, operating income by 40.5% and the profit for the term by 29.2% comparing with the previous term.
In terms of segment, the sales of gas-related and plant, etc. increased by 9.0% with the acquisition of IMI of medical equipment distributor in the domestic gas business, while the air-separation gas business slowed down in both bulk and on-site supply due to the sluggish performance of the steelmaking industry and the other major consumers.
Helium sold better with an approximate increase of JPY200 million than last year, but not enough to push up the whole result. The sales revenue of the segment decreased by 2.1% and the profit by 3.6%.
In the US gas business, there was a steady pace in the delivery of air-separation gases although the profit was affected a little by the increased cost to produce and transport bulk gases.
The delivery of CO2 grew well by the operation of the new plant. With the operation of new on-site plant and the effect of acquiring HyCO from Linde, the total sales revenue increased by 6.2% making the profit of the segment increased by 42.4%.
In the European gas business which the company bought from Praxair in December 2018, the business performance throughout the year (April 2019 to March 2020) started to be posted from 2019.
The sales revenue was JPY165.564 billion and the segmental profit was JPY24.854 billion. Assuming that the acquisition would have been dated in April 2018, the would-be sales was about JPY163.4 billion for the period from April 2018 to March 2019, which is estimated to be an increase by 1.4% from the previous term.
There was a decrease in sales in the on-site business in Spain, but TNSC increased sales in Germany, Benelux and North Europe. Looking at a single month of March, the whole movement seems to have stayed flat at the level of last term.
In the Asian and Oceanian business, the sales revenue decreased by 1.5%, but the profit of the segment increased by 8.8% because there was a fall-apart of the impairment loss of about JPY1.3 billion related to the natural gas business of Leeden NOX which was posted in the fourth quarter of previous term.
The decrease is attributed mainly to the rebound drop of spot demand for bulk gas in China last year and the deceleration of specialty gases in Taiwan. However, there was a substantial growth of sales in Taiwan thanks to the orders of memory-related investments prevailing in the country. In addition, the delivery of LP gas seems to have remained steady in Australia.
The THERMOS was sluggish with the slowed-down production process and operation rate due to the influence of the spreading coronavirus infection, resulting in the decrease of sales revenue by 9.6%, making the profit of the segment decreased by 21.4%.
　As at the end of March 2020, the influences of coronavirus to the domestic and overseas gas industries were limited, but they appeared in numerical figures after the beginning of this term. In the European business, the Spanish and Italian economic situation still remains stagnant as mentioned before, the sales of air-separation gases in April decreased by 20% comparing with the previous term.
In the US business, too, CO2 gas for beverage went down with a total decrease of 15% due to the coronavirus infection in addition to the various air-separation gases for the automobile industries.
Also in the domestic business under the emergency declaration, there occurred a drop of 10% in oxygen and nitrogen from last year.
Anticipating such influences which might be caused by the coronavirus, TNSC has made out the following forecast of the consolidated account for the term particularly regarding the core operating profit. Concretely there are three anticipated items which are (i) Decrease by 15% or so from the previous year in the sales revenue of the industrial gases and hard goods at the end of the first quarter, (ii) Decrease by 10% at the end of the second quarter, (iii) Back to a flat level in sales like the previous year but the core operating income by industrial gases and hard goods throughout the year drop down by about JPY9.7 billion.
　In the fields not directly affected by the coronavirus infection like specialty gases and related equipment and constructions, TNSC forecasts profits with an estimated increase by about 2 billion yen compared with last year.
　In the THERMOS business which has already been affected by the infection, it is forecasted that the core operating income will drop down by about JPY900 million as the serious situation will continue in Japan, China and Korea mainly during the first quarter.
Considering all of the above, TNSC determined the corporate annual forecast of the core operating income at JPY82 billion which is 9.2% less than the previous term. However, the company most probably may review the forecast depending upon the spreading condition of coronavirus infection.
As for the forecast of consolidated business performances including the core operating income for FY2021 ending March, the sales revenue will decrease by 2.4% amounting to JPY830 billion, core operating income by 9.2% amounting to JPY82 billion, operating income by 12.7% amounting to JPY82 billion and the profit for the term by 17.5% amounting to JPY44 billion.