Nippon Sheet Glass is seeing a sharp rise in profits after dramatically reducing its assets over the past 2 years. Japan's second-largest sheet glass maker sold loss-making businesses & closed plants, in its information/electronics division & also in its core glass/building materials division. As a results of the fall in fixed costs, the firm forecasts a steep profit rise for 2004. The company's next challenge is to take advantage of demand for new products, such as special glass for vehicles etc. In fiscal 2000, information/electronic division posted JPY 13.4bn in operating profit, nearly half of the company's total, on robust sales of microlenses for optical communications systems. However, in fiscal 2001, demand plummeted, and NSG suffered a JPY 20BN fall in earnings forcing the firm into restructuring. Contact: info@britglass.co.uk for more
