Iwatani decreased sales by 15.7% with the operating income down 46.0%, the ordinary profit down 35.5% and the net profit for the quarter term down 26.7% comparing with the same term of previous year.

In terms of divisional segment, a serious drop was most noticeable in the main comprehensive energy business. As for the LPG business, the sale of LPG for household use kept increasing like last year because the coronavirus infection made more people stay home and rather mild temperature in early spring. However, the declined demand for industrial use at user’s side brought a drop in the sales volume. In addition, coupled with the lowered selling price following the reduced import price, the sales turned out to be substantially negative down 17.6% amounting to 61.16 billion yen with operating income down 74.7% amounting to 680 million yen.

Regarding the industrial gas and machinery business, the sales of air-separation gas for the automobile and optical fiber business fields was sluggish, and the machinery and equipment business also stayed stagnated under the influence of the delayed capital investment.

Though supported by the increased sales of helium abroad and the growth in the domestic liquid hydrogen business as well as the expanded sales of hydrogen related business mainly related to hydrogen stations, the sales decreased by 14.6% amounting to 38.787 billion yen with the operating income down 27.0% amounting to 1.68 billion yen.

The material business which is the only segment which attained a more profit than last term also saw a decrease in sales of mineral sands and metal processed products for the air-conditioning field in the domestic market. However, it eventually contributed to the positive profit with the increased sales of living wares like PET resin of “Hi-Wrap.”　The sales decreased by 12.4% amounting to 32.522 billion yen with the operating income up 9.9% amounting to 1.11 billion yen.

As for a full-year forecast, there is no modification of the previous forecast announcement.