(Reuters) – Japan’s top steelmaker Nippon Steel Corp on Thursday posted a 2% increase in April-December net profit to 517 billion yen ($4 billion) and said it would pay a record-high full-year dividend of 180 yen per share.
Nippon Steel, which kept its full-year net profit forecast unchanged at 670 billion yen, paid an annual dividend of 160 yen per share last year. Japan’s financial year ends on March 31.
The company raised its full-year underlying business profit forecast by 60 billion yen to 690 billion yen, as it expects its non-consolidated steel output to be 200,000 tonnes higher than estimated in its previous forecast released in November.
On Thursday, it posted April-December sales up 21% to 5.7 trillion yen.
As Nippon Steel expands in lower-emission business including carbon capture and storage, it plans to issue a green bond on the Japanese market to co-finance production of electrical steel sheets used in eco-friendly car motors, it said.
The size and maturity of the bond are yet to be announced and the issue itself may come in March or later, Nippon Steel added.
($1 = 131.2300 yen)
(Reporting by Katya Golubkova; editing by Jason Neely)
