In the first half of the fiscal year ended September 30, 2012, almost all major chemical companies in Japan experienced declines in profitability and sales revenue. Most of their profits fell by more than half. Sumitomo Chemical and Mitsui Chemicals lost more than 10 billion yen. . Only Shin-Etsu Chemical is in a good position to achieve profit growth in the first half of the fiscal year. The global economic downturn, weak demand in overseas markets including China and the continued appreciation of the yen are the main factors. In the first half of this fiscal year, Mitsubishi Chemical's net profit fell sharply by 91% year-on-year to 3.3 billion yen (US$41 million); sales revenue fell by 2.5% year-on-year to 1.53 trillion yen; operating profit fell by 57% year-on-year , dropped to 41.1 billion yen. According to the company, China's weak demand, continued appreciation of the yen, and slowdown in overseas economies led to a challenging business environment for its high-performance products and industrial materials business. The sales revenue of its chemical business decreased by 4.8% year-on-year to 443.6 billion yuan. Yen; operating profit dropped to JPY 5.4 billion from JPY 19.4 billion in the same period last year. In the first half of the fiscal year, Mitsubishi Chemical's ethylene production increased by 36.2% year-on-year to 546,000 tons. This is mainly because the company’s two naphtha crackers in Kashima were temporarily shut down due to the earthquake and tsunami in northeastern Japan in March 2011. The two sets of equipment combined total ethylene production capacity of approximately 830,000 tons/year. Mitsubishi Chemical said that in spite of weak demand, sales revenue of its basic petrochemical products and derivatives increased significantly year-on-year in the first half of the year because the impact of last year's earthquake was completely eliminated. In the first half of the fiscal year, Sumitomo Chemical Co., Ltd. saw a net loss of 13.1 billion yen, compared with a net loss of 2.7 billion yen for the same period last year; sales revenue fell 3.7% year-on-year to 961.4 billion yen. Sumitomo Chemical's sales revenue from its petrochemicals and plastics business increased by 0.6% year-on-year to slightly increase to 343.2 billion yen. However, it still saw an operating loss of 218 million yen, compared with an operating profit of 7.8 billion yen in the same period last year. Sumitomo Chemical's basic chemical sales revenue fell 12.8% year-on-year, to 132.9 billion yen, resulting in an operating loss of 2.6 billion yen, compared with 12.5 billion yen in operating profits during the same period last year. Sumitomo Chemical said that in the first half of the fiscal year, the market prices for raw materials for methyl methacrylate and synthetic fibers declined, while the sales volume decreased, resulting in a decline in performance. Asahi Kasei’s net profit for the first half of the fiscal year fell by 46% year-on-year to 20.6 billion yen; sales revenue fell 0.4% to 787.5 billion yen. Asahi Kasei's sales revenue from its chemical business decreased by 7.7% year-on-year to 333.3 billion yen; operating profit decreased by 57.3% year-on-year to 14.6 billion yen. Asahi Kasei said that due to the cooling of China's economy, the trading environment for chemical and derivative products has deteriorated significantly, and the market for acrylonitrile and adipic acid has weakened. In the polymer product business, sales of automotive engineering plastics and synthetic rubbers are relatively strong. In the specialty products segment, the ion membrane business is affected by the economic cooling in China, while the coatings and functional chemicals business remains strong. In the first half of the fiscal year, Toray Industries’ net profit fell 50.1% year-on-year to 20 billion yen; sales revenue fell 5.8% year-on-year to 753.7 billion yen. Toray Industries’ plastic and chemical business revenue decreased by 5.6% year-on-year to 1,950 billion yen; operating profit fell 35.9% year-on-year to 10.5 billion yen. Toray Industries' sales revenue from its fiber and fabric business decreased by 6.1% year-on-year to 288.9 billion yen; its operating profit decreased by 18.5% year-on-year to 18.5 billion yen. Mitsui Chemicals Co., Ltd. posted a net loss of 15.3 billion yen in the first half of fiscal year, and realized a net profit of 13.4 billion yen in the same period of last year; sales revenue decreased by 10% to 680.5 billion yen, mainly because of the company’s basic chemical business sales revenue. The reduction was 46.1 billion yen. On April 22 this year, an explosion occurred at Mitsui Chemicals’ Iwami Otake factory, which resulted in the forced closure of all the plant's facilities. Some devices restarted in July, but resorcinol and several other devices are still closed. Mitsui Chemicals estimates that the company’s explosion accident led to the company’s profit reduction of 6 billion yen this fiscal year. ZHEJIANG FULE MINING MACHINERY CO., LTD , https://www.flmachines.com