Sumitomo Chemical sales down 11% in FY2012

By CnAgri Print Sumitomo Chemical’s Health & Crop Sciences section sales decreased by 10.8% to ¥170.2 billion in the FY2012 ended Mar 31, 2013. Health & Crop Sciences segment includes crop protection chemicals, fertilizers, feed additives, household and public hygiene insecticides, and active pharmaceutical ingredients and intermediates.

In the area of crop protection chemicals, shipments of herbicides remained strong in overseas markets, but sales declined due to seasonal effects caused by a change in an overseas subsidiary’s fiscal year to the end of March from the end of December. Shipments of pharmaceutical chemicals and the long-lasting insecticidal mosquito net, Olyset® Net, decreased due to lower demand. Market prices of the feed additive methionine declined. As a result, the segment’s sales decreased by ¥20.6 billion compared with the same period of the previous fiscal year, to ¥170.2 billion, and operating income declined by ¥8.6 billion, to ¥8.9 billion.