OSAKA -- Kyocera Corp. on Wednesday announced sharp increases in both group sales and pretax profit for fiscal 2000 but predicted declines in both sales and profits for the current fiscal year, citing the slowdown in U.S. growth.
The Kyoto-based maker of electronic parts said group sales rose 58.1 percent from the previous year to 1.285 trillion yen, while consolidated pretax profit grew 310.6 percent to 400.2 billion yen due to strong demand for telecommunications devices and ceramic devices for optical communication. Its group net profit jumped 336 percent to 219.5 billion yen.
The company, however, forecasts 1.22 trillion yen in group sales, down 5.1 percent from fiscal 2000, and consolidated pretax profits of 180 billion yen, down 55 percent.
This is because of the economic slowdown in the U.S. and the general slowdown in the mobile telecommunications and personal computer markets. Kyocera President Yasuo Nishiguchi said these markets are expected to recover in latter half of the current year.
The company intends to make capital investment of 81 billion yen in the current fiscal year on a group basis, down 23.5 percent from fiscal 2000.