Kawasaki Steel Corp. returned to profitability, while four other major steel makers suffered another disappointing year, according to fiscal 1999 earnings reports released Thursday.
Kawasaki Steel posted 12.429 billion yen in consolidated net profits for the business year that ended March 31, compared with losses of 113.826 billion yen in the previous year.
Its group pretax profits came to 26.076 billion yen, rising more than eight times from a year earlier, with sales amounting to 1.257 trillion yen, up 14.9 percent from a year before.