Showa Denko KK

TSE:4004

Earnings Call Transcript 2021-Q2

[Kohei Morikawa, executive]

Good morning. I am Morikawa, CEO of Showa Denko. I'd like to thank everyone for taking time out of your busy schedules to join us today for our briefing on the first half results and full year forecast for 2021. This is the contents of today's briefing. In addition to the first half results and full year forecast for 2021, I will provide an overview of our key businesses, including ICT mobility, graphite electrodes, hard disk and the petrochemicals and the progress of the integration with Showa Denko Materials, the progress of our long-term vision and our efforts to contribute to a sustainable society. Our CFO, Takeuchi, will explain the details of the financial results for the first half 2021 later.

In the first half of 2021, China and the U.S. were the strong drivers of the global economy. In particular, the semiconductor-related market grew more than initially expected due to the progress of IoT, 5G and the penetration of pillar work and other factors. As a result, we also saw a large upturn in the information communication technologies.

The sales volume of graphite electrodes continue to increase due to growing demand. As for the reorganization of our business portfolio, as already disclosed, we are making progress ahead of our initial plan and believe that we have reached a certain point. For the second half of 2021, we expect growth in the information and communication business and recovery in the automotive parts to continue. In addition, we plan to increase the capacity utilization rate of the graphite electrodes furnaces to around 90%, supported by strong supply and demand.

We also expect the petrochemicals business to remain strong. In the hard disk, we will steadily capture the growing demand for high-volume products for near-line server applications. For the integration with Showa Denko Materials, we have set up a preparation offices for CXO and new business headquarters on July 2021, and we are on track to complete the actual integration on January 2022, one year ahead of scheduled full legal integration in 2023.

I will explain the results for the first half of 2021 and the full year forecast. For comparison purposes, the actual results for the first half of 2020 are some of the Showa Denko Group's results and the performance of Showa Denko Materials from January to June 2020, including the depreciation of goodwill.

First half of 2021, sales will increase by JPY 88.5 billion to JPY 693.4 billion, and operating income will increase by JPY 79.9 billion to JPY 47.6 billion due to the expansion of the booming semiconductor market and higher selling prices of major petrochemicals products.

Net income attributable to shareholders of the parent was loss of JPY 13.4 billion, an increase of JPY 56.8 billion year-on-year, despite the recording of an extraordinary loss of approximately JPY 40 billion due to business portfolio restructuring. For the second half of 2021, we expect net sales of JPY 706.6 billion, operating income of JPY 37.4 billion and a net loss attributable to shareholders of JPY 11.6 billion.

Although operating income will be JPY 10.1 billion lower in the second half than the first half, this will be due to a decrease of the naphtha factor in the Petrochemical segment, the sale of business in the Aluminum segment and unconsolidation of SHOKO, we expect the overall business environment to remain favorable due to the increase in sales volume of graphite electrode and the continued expansion of the semiconductor market.

We plan to pay a dividend of JPY 65 per share as we will continue to maintain stable dividends while prioritizing the reduction of interest-bearing debts to improve our financial position and investment in growing businesses. This is an analysis of the difference in operating income between the forecast for 2021 and the actual result for 2020. The 2020 results include the first half results of Showa Denko Materials. In addition to the JPY 10.9 billion effect of the cancellation SDMC step-up adjustment, recovery from the devaluation of inventory caused by an application of lower of the cost of market accounting method, graphite electrodes business is expected to recover from the red ink due to the impact of the COVID-19 in 2020. In addition, we expect an improvement of JPY 57 billion in volume factors and JPY 7.4 billion in price factors due to the continued strong performance of the semiconductor-related business resulting in an operating income forecast of JPY 85 billion for 2021.

The 4 business portfolios shown in last year's long-term vision are divided into core growth business and next-generation business and stable earnings business, foundational technologies and materials business. The core growth and next-generation businesses in the upper part of the page is expected to grow at a high rate in 2021, with sales increasing by 18.4% compared to 2020 and EBITDA margin is also expected to be 18.7%.

On the other hand, EBITDA in the stable earnings business, fundamental technologies and materials business will quadruple and profitability will recover significantly. The EBITDA margin is expected to be 12.1%. With the EBITDA margin approaching the target of 23%, we believe that we are making steady progress towards our goal of an integrated company portfolio where the growing businesses such as Information and Communication and Mobility will achieve sales growth that will drive the entire group and the stable earnings businesses where we generate solid cash.

From here, I will give you an overview of the outlook and measures for the major businesses. In the information technology, our core growth business, semiconductor-related products performed well in the first half of 2021, driving our performance. With regard to copper-clad laminates for semiconductor (IC), CMP slurries and high-purity gases for electronic materials, in order to respond to the expansion of the semiconductor market in East Asia, we will have strengthened local production for local consumption, including new construction and expansion in China, Taiwan and South Korea.

In addition, SDK Group has been accredited by NEDO as an executor of the development of post-process technology. Here, we decided to create a cutting-edge package evaluation platform named Joint 2 by substrate equipment and material manufacturers with the aim of making next generation of de facto standard for semiconductor packages.

In the second half of the fiscal year, we will continue to invest aggressively in our major products in order to achieve growth exceeding the market as strong demand in the semiconductor market will continue.

With regard to CMP slurries and high-purity gases for electronic materials, we will steadily implement the capacity expansion that we have already started and promote local production for local consumption. In addition, we will accelerate the development of next-generation 2.XD and 3D semiconductor packaging materials by utilizing Joint 2.

In the first half of the year, in the mobility business, which is also one of our core growth businesses, we started up 6 new models with back doors and copper-free disc pads for new car models and also establish a new back door manufacturing base in Wuhan, China amid the ongoing recovery of the automobile market. On the other hand, shortage of the supply of the semiconductors for automobiles put downward pressure on our business performance.

In the second half of the fiscal year, we expect that production of automobiles will be strong, but we need to pay attention to the impact of shortage of semiconductors. In addition to steadily building up 11 new models for which orders have already been received, we will continue to strengthen our efforts to quickly turn the Wuhan plant into an asset and the acquisition of certifications for products for next-generation automobiles.

The sales volume of black graphite electrodes, a stable income business, is returning to normal as customers completed inventory adjustments at the end of 2020 due in part to increased demand for steel. In the first half of this fiscal year, electric furnace has recovered from the effects of COVID-19 and our manufacturing facilities are now operating at full capacity. In addition, the measures implemented in the previous year to improve electrode quality, optimize production capacity and reduce cost by applying the lower of cost or market methods are having a positive effect, and we are making progress in strengthening our business structure. In addition, we acquired the share of AMI Automation in February and decided to work together with our customers to promote a value at maximization projects.

Demand for steel will continue to increase steadily in the second half of the year, and we anticipate an increase in sales volume, but a full-scale reversal in selling price is expected to be delayed until the fourth quarter. We will continue to improve our global production and quality control systems to strengthen the foundation for a stable global supply system. In addition, we will tie up with AMI Automation, which announced its acquisition of our shares on February and start full-scale consultancy business to propose optimal electronic furnace operation to our customers and solve SDG issues such as CO2 reduction and the improvement of unit requirement.

In the first half of the fiscal year, sales and operating income of hard disks, a stable profit-making business, grew steadily, thanks to steady demand for nearline products as telework, stay home demand and investment in data centers remain strong. Preparations for mass production of MAMR, compatible media for the next-generation recording, development of HAMR compatible media are in progress.

In the second half of the fiscal year, we expect the demand for large capacity media for near line applications to continue to be strong, but we recognize that we will need to closely monitor the availability of customer factories and HD component suppliers due to the expansion of COVID-19 infection in Southeast Asia. We will continue to focus on the early realization of the capacity expansion of aluminum substrate in improving productivity. We are selling industry's largest capacity products, HDE Media products to all HD customers and expect to increase sales and profits over the first half. We also plan to start mass production sales of MAMR media.

Petrochemicals, our stable and profitable business, was driven by the demand from the Chinese economy, particularly during the first half. On top of the recovered domestic demand here in Japan, thanks to the increase in naphtha price, the bottom line improved, resulting in growth both in sales and profit. Our naphtha crackers are continuing full capacity in operation since the second half of the last year. As for the second half, with naphtha price increases stopping as well as a possible concern for impact coming from new crackers operations in East Asia region, we expect to face a tough situation. That said though, we will carry out our measures to have stable operations and to strengthen our profit-making structure. Furthermore, we plan to have a major in our maintenance, what we call, a shutdown maintenance in 2022. This is going to be carried out once every 4 years. We will keep an eye on optimized balance between inventory and production and sales.

Now allow me to explain the progress of integration with Showa Denko Materials since financial briefing how we had back in February. In order to accelerate our efforts here, we launched a preparation office for advanced functional materials business headquarters in February. As you've seen here in July, we set up preparation offices for business headquarters and preparation offices for group CXOs. We aim at completing the integration of headquarters offices in the first half of August.

In the second half, under the leadership of our each office head, we would like to accelerate our journey to become a truly top-level organization at the global level. We decided to advance our integration of management organization 1 year ahead of the original schedule. We call it day 3. With seasonal activities, we are now working on and making steady progress, and we are going to have day 4 in January 2023 to fully integrate the corporate entities of Showa Denko and Showa Denko Materials.

Now I'd like to talk about our synergy efforts for the short term and midterm perspectives. We would like to make further effort to improve our profit-making structure and would like to make our assets leaner as much as possible and would like to naturally carry out those business portfolio efforts. We announced our sales plan for aluminum can and aluminum rolled products business in January. And in March, we made announcement on the transfer sales of SHOKO Co. Limited. And in May, we made announcement for the full [indiscernible] businesses, and in July, the printed circuit board business and the ceramic business and energy storage devices and systems business. So we made announcement for the 7 business lines of operation.

On the midterm basis, actually, we are going to aim at JPY 28 billion by 2021, and we would like to actually aim at JPY 50 billion in 2021. In December last year, we actually announced that we like to become a global top level functional chemical manufacturer. And actually, we showed to you our long-term vision for 2030. We have top 21. This is our midterm business plan. And in 2025, we like to become the truly unique and a causation company. It is going to be quite important for us to actually have the smooth operations in this journey, so that we can become truly the top-notch company in 2030. Of course, there are issues coming from the integration with the materials, and we would like to actually address these issues as early as possible.

This shows our long-term vision. This shows some of the important activities in terms of integrating technologies of the 2 companies. And we have a chemistry to think, this is for simulation. And also chemistry to suffice, this is something we need to make. And also, we have this chemistry to form it. And actually, out of these activities, we would like to come up with a very unique offerings to our customers and to the global markets. So it's important for us to actually have built a very unique business portfolio.

Next, I'd like to move on to R&D activities on the mid-term and short-term basis. It is important for Showa Denko proposes technical solutions to issues which are related to the product groups where Showa Denko Materials have their strength. And we started this effort starting from the last year.

Firstly, CMP slurry. Actually, we're trying to expand production capacity by launching production at SDK sites. This is 1 specific example I just want to share with you. And in regard to the ANISOLM, anisotropic conductive film, we actually launched sample shipments by improving conductivity in properties and through utilization of SDK materials. I would just say, we enjoyed really good synergies going on between the 2 companies.

Next, I'd like to look into the R&D progress I would like to make on the mid-term and short-term basis. Actually, it is very important for us to have these important themes, including the heat management. Talking about the power modules, well, we may have well in action the power semiconductors in terms of performance. But unless we have really good holding devices and selling materials and others which are going to be really standing against high heat, nothing can expect. So it's important for us to have the total design looking into the cooling devices and filling materials and cistern materials and others.

In order for us to enjoy such technological synergies, we decided to establish the power module integration center in July, and this is going to help us to offer a really excellent heat management solutions as packages to our customers. It is important for us to fully understand the news coming from the market and from the customers. So with this point in mind, we actually established a corporate marketing office in January 2021. This is going to enable us to go through -- go beyond these silos of Showa Denko and Showa Denko Materials. And we started our marketing activities within this framework. With this marketing capability, we should be able to actually share information concerning our customers and trends as well as market needs.

And out of this, we would like to create a very good engagement with the customers. And also utilizing website and other technologies, actually, we are sharing the video streaming services and also webinar including online seminars. So we'd like to fully utilize these additional channels so that we can actually strengthen our engagement relationship with the customers.

Next, I'd like to talk about wafers for the digital transformation. Actually, they are defense side as well as offense size. So there's 2 important aspects to be involved. Defense points, it is important for us to actually further improve the strategies for the IT department together with the Showa Denko Materials. In regard of this, actually, it is quite important for us to rebuild the business and operational infrastructure that conforms to the new normal society. It is important for us to define those domains so that we can be truly efficient and effective, particularly in the back office side.

There are 5 domains. Those 5 domains, namely global management information, finance and accounting, human resources management, purchasing indirect materials and, lastly, IT infrastructure. With introduction done, it is very important for us to actually cover people, materials and money we need to put together in the best efficient manner. And also, we should be able to address issues and challenges coming from the worker transformation as well as innovations.

Next for the offense side. It is important for us to actually have the end-to-end IoT in our systems. And it is very important for us to have such an organization, namely, Chief Digital Officer, CDO, has been established. This is going to be a quite important idea from the viewpoints of the Center of Excellence or CoE. And with this CDO and CoE, we'd like to actually accumulate best practices from internal as well as external walls. A lot of this would like to actually come up with a quite unique, what we call, the [indiscernible] business activities. It is important for us to be flexible in working on strategies and tactics.

Talking about RDX. Actually, we have 3 important chains; supply chain, engineering chain and circular chain. We'd like to have really good end to end relationship on the upstream as well as downstream. It's important for us to connect people, technologies and facilities and products and services. Out of this, we'll actually come up with really new unique services we can offer to our customers.

Our purpose is we like to actually make contributions to change society through the power of chemistry. This is going to be a quite important alignment for all the people concerned, so that we can truly aim at the real high-level DX situations. Our group is aiming at making contributions to the sustainable global society. This is our long vision. And actually, we are going to challenge ourselves to become carbon neutral in 2050. By 2030, we need to make our best efforts in terms of rationalizations and the best past efficiency and energy saving and also the fuel conversion as well as some high-efficient code-generating systems. And also, we need to work on the plastic chemical recycling activities as well as energy and conversion. And we are going to aim at carbon neutrality in the year 2050.

And also in the end of 2030, our GHG reduction goal is going to be based upon the integration with the Showa Denko Materials. And also, we are going to aim at 30% GHG direction in the end of 2030. I'd like to introduce some of the initiatives aiming at carbon neutrality. We do cover the fossil resources. Actually, we have the boiler and turbine combined systems in order to produce the heat energies in the best efficiency manner.

The first step is indicating that we would like to work on this -- the conversion of the low field of the emission of the GHG. And also, we'd like to work on the best-of-the-breed gas turbine cogeneration systems. And also now, we'd like to burn ammonia and also we will let utilize the CCU and we would like to aim at to become carbon neutral in 2050.

Our group is using the Western plastic materials to produce hydrogen ammonia. This is what we call the chemical recycling activities. We are accumulating our technologies from the plant facilities. And we are actually going to work on -- make a new chemical recycle technologies. This is going to help us to get away from the ethylene problem, which are the traditional materials from the oil chemistries. Rather, I would like to actually utilize Western plastic to be used in order to actually produce really efficient energy. We'd like to have less dependence on the fossil materials. We'd like to make a really great advancement in terms of carbon neutrality.

With this, I'd like to conclude my presentation. Thank you, indeed.

[Motohiro Takeuchi, executive]

Good morning. I am Motohiro Takeuchi, CFO of Showa Denko. I'd like to thank you all for your continued attention to our corporate performance. I'd like to offer my deepest sympathies to all those who have been infected with COVID-19 and to those who have suffered from the pandemic. Now I'd like to explain the overview of our financial results for the second quarter of the fiscal year 2021.

Please refer to Page 2. First, I'd like to explain our financial results for the second quarter of the fiscal year 2021. As in the first quarter, we will continue with our explanation of the second quarter, focusing on the comparison with the previous quarter, namely compare April, June with January to March.

Sales on the second quarter were JPY 353.7 billion, an increase of JPY 14 billion from the first quarter. Market was up for Petrochemicals segment. And for Electronics segment, there was an increase of the volume of HD Media. Since we're up in all segments, except for the Other segment, which saw a decline in -- due to the unconsolidation of SHOKO. Operating income increased JPY 5.9 billion to JPY 26.8 billion from the first quarter of the year. Although profits at Showa Denko Materials declined due to the impact of high prices of raw materials, the semiconductor-related business continued to perform well. The graphite electrode business benefited from the elimination of expensive raw materials and cost reductions. The business portfolio restructuring associated with the sale of businesses and the reduction of interest-bearing debt are progressing well.

We announced our full year forecast for 2021 on August 3. We expect sales to increase by JPY 55 billion from the May forecast to JPY 1.400 trillion details of which will be explained on Page 19.

Despite the impact of the business transfer, we anticipate higher market prices for petrochemical products, increased sales volume of graphite electrodes and strong sales of semiconductor-related products. Operating income is expected to increase JPY 17 billion from the May forecast to JPY 85 billion. We expect strong sales of semiconductor-related products and an increase in sales volume of graphite electrodes in the Showa Denko Materials segment.

Please refer to Page 3. The number of consolidated subsidiaries decreased by 6 from the end of the previous fiscal year to 145. Nine companies that left the consolidation were: 5 companies related to SHOKO; 2 companies in the aluminum cans business; 2 companies related to energy storage devices and system business; and 2 companies that were liquidated, 3 companies were added on consolidation, 2 related to transfer of printed wiring board business and 1 newly established regenerative medicine company.

The number of companies accounted for by the equity method increased to 14 in the first quarter due to the reclassification of 1 company from an affiliate accounted for by the use of the equity method. The selected data as shown here. As you can see, the yen weakened against both the U.S. dollar and the euro. The average price of naphtha for the period from January to June was up 24.1% from the same period of the previous year due to the impact of rising crude oil prices.

The price of aluminum LME rose sharply by 39.4% year-on-year due to the recovery of demand in the manufacturing industry.

Page 4. This section shows a summary of the consolidated results for the second quarter of 2021 compared to the previous quarter. As explained earlier, sales increased by JPY 14 billion or 4.1% from the previous quarter. Operating income increased by JPY 5.9 billion or 28.5% from the previous quarter. We will explain the details of net sales and operating income on Page 5 onwards. Ordinary income was JPY 25.1 billion, slightly higher than the previous quarter. The details of nonoperating income and expenses and extraordinary profit and loss will be explained on and after Page 16.

Net loss attributable to owners of the parent increased by a large margin of JPY 23.8 billion to negative JPY 18.6 billion due to the recording of business structure improvement expenses related to the transfer of energy storage device and system business as an extraordinary loss. EBITDA increased by JPY 6.3 billion to JPY 56.3 billion and the margin of EBITDA margin to sales improved by 1.2 percentage points to 15.9%.

Please refer to Page 5. This is a list of sales and operating income for each segment compared to the previous quarter. In the Other segment, sales and profits decreased due to the unconsolidation of SHOKO due to share transfer, and profits decreased at Showa Denko Materials, but sales and profits increased in all other segments. We will explain the details on Page 6 onwards.

Please refer to Page 6. Sales by the Petrochemicals segment increased by JPY 11.7 billion to JPY 69.5 billion, and operating income increased by JPY 0.6 billion to JPY 6.2 billion. Sales of olefins increased due to higher market prices for mainstay products such as ethylene, while operating income remained flat at high levels as food capacity utilization continued. Since July last year, sales and income of organic chemicals increased due to higher market prices for our mainstay products, vinyl acetate and ethyl acetate.

Sales at SunAllomer increased due to recovery in demand, but profits declined due to a delay in the timing of the transfer of higher naphtha raw materials to selling prices. Net sales in the Chemicals segment increased by JPY 4.1 billion to JPY 45.4 billion, and operating income increased by JPY 0.9 billion to JPY 5.8 billion. Both sales and income increased due to improvements from the first 3 months when all businesses were affected by regular maintenance as well as increase in demand from the semiconductor industry in the information and electronic chemicals business and improvement in the market for a [indiscernible] in the basic chemicals business, functional chemical recorded a decrease in income due to higher raw materials.

Please refer to Page 7. Sales in the Electronics segment increased by JPY 6 billion to JPY 27.7 billion, and operating income increased by JPY 2.4 billion to JPY 3.8 billion. Sales and profits of hard disks increased due to strong demand from data centers and sales and profits of lithium-ion battery materials increased due to an increase in sales of aluminum laminated packaging materials and sales and profits of compound semiconductors and SiC epitaxial wafers also increased due to an increase in volume.

In the inorganic segments, sales increased by JPY 4 billion to JPY 25.2 billion, and operating income increased by JPY 4.2 billion to JPY 5.3 billion. Sales and profits of ceramics increased due to an increase in the volume of fine ceramics for steel, automotive and electronic materials. Sales and profits of graphite electrodes increased due to a recovery in demand and large increase in sales volume. The actual sales volume for the first half was approximately 70,000 tons, and the production capacity utilization rate for the second quarter was just under 80%.

Please refer to Page 8. Sales in the Aluminum segment increased by JPY 2.7 billion to JPY 25.2 billion, and operating income increased by JPY 1.1 billion to JPY 3.3 billion. Sales and profits of aluminum specialty components increased due to higher demand from the automotive parts, construction machinery and OA equipment industries. In rolled -- aluminum rolled products, sales and profits increased due to an increase in the volume of high-purity foils for aluminum electrolytic capacitors as a result of the recovery in the production in the automobile and factory automation industries. The volume of aluminum cans were up seasonally and recording an increased sales. Due to the sale of business, aluminum rolled products will only remain in consolidation until the first half and also aluminum cans will be exempted from the second half.

In the Showa Denko Materials segment, sales rose by JPY 1 billion to JPY 160.6 billion, while operating profit declined by JPY 2.5 billion to JPY 5 billion. Both sales and income increased in the information and communication due to strong demand for semiconductors, but sales and profit decrease in the mobility components and energy storage device due to a decline in new car production and the impact of higher material prices. Operating income, excluding amortization of goodwill to consolidation, is shown with the asterisk, and we continue to maintain a high profit margin. In the Other segment, sales and profit declined substantially mainly due to the impact of unconsolidation from the second quarter due to the transfer of SHOKO shares.

Page 9. This page shows the summary of the consolidated financial results for the period from January to June 2021 compared to the same period last year. The sales and profits of Showa Denko Materials have not been included in the previous year's numbers. Sales increased by a large margin of JPY 366.7 billion to JPY 693.4 billion due to the inclusion of the Showa Denko Materials segment. Operating income was JPY 47.6 billion, an increase of JPY 73.4 billion from the same period last year. This was mainly due to an increase in the volume of graphite electrodes in the Inorganic segment and an improvement in the raw naphtha price factor in the Petrochemical segment.

Ordinary income was JPY 93.4 billion to JPY 50.2 billion. Nonoperating income and expenses and extraordinary profit and loss will be explained on Page 16. But just for information here, we had extraordinary loss for environmental initiatives as well as the business structural expenses for the transfer of energy storage device systems. All in all, the extraordinary loss was JPY 50.4 billion. As for net income attributable to owners of the parent, it improved JPY 41.2 billion year-on-year, but the number here became minus JPY 13.4 billion.

Please refer to Page 10. This shows an operating income breakdown by factor comparing to numbers in January to June last year. From the negative JPY 25.8 billion in the same period previous year, it became positive JPY 47.6 billion, up JPY 73.4 billion. Almost 1/2 of this comes from lower of cost or market accounting method for graphite electrodes. Don't know the value -- the book value of inventory due to the rolling market and for the graphite electrodes, we were able to gain back this profit coming from the elimination of semi-finished products and raw materials.

The volume difference of plus JPY 16.1 billion comes from the increased volume of graphite electrodes, aluminum specialty components, hard disk media, et cetera. Plus the JPY 14 billion for the petrochemical naphtha factors was driven by the impact caused by naphtha materials price increase. Newly consolidated subsidiary Showa Denko Materials generated JPY 12.6 billion. Back then, the company had not been consolidated. The price factor being minus JPY 7.3 billion can be explained mainly by the deteriorated spread due to the market deterioration as much as JPY 3.7 billion, and the deteriorated spread due to the increased material cost of Petrochemical segment as much as JPY 2.7 billion.

Now please turn to Page 11. This shows a summary of consolidated sales and operating income by segment year-on-year. In the first half of 2020, Showa Denko Materials was not consolidated yet. Other segment shows declines both in sales and profit due to the nonconsolidation with stock transfer of SHOKO Co. Ltd. Other than this, all other segments show growth both in sales and profit.

Now please turn to Page 12. Page 12 to 14 show the comparison vis-à-vis January through June 2021. Hope you can refer to them at your leisure time.

Now Page 15. Here, I will explain the nonoperating income and expenses as well as extraordinary profit and loss. Compared with the cost incurred for the acquisition of 4 Hitachi Chemical stocks as much as JPY 16.1 billion, the current second quarter January through June shows an improvement as much as JPY 20.1 billion in net, though we had to pay the increased interest due to the increased interest-bearing debt. Extraordinary profit and loss increased to JPY 44 billion. This is mainly coming from JPY 9 billion for the environmental measures cost in the first quarter as well as JPY 2.5 billion loss coming from the transfer of aluminum-related business as well as JPY 30.1 billion impairment caused by the storage device systems business.

Now please turn to Page 16. This shows cost of the integration with Showa Denko Materials out of operating and nonoperating expenses, et cetera, preferred stock dividends as well. Compared with the actual cost of JPY 3.1 billion during January through June, the integration cost will substantially increase to JPY 6.1 billion as forecasted. This is driven by the advancing progress of the integration after the merger. Our integration efforts are well advancing as Mr. Morikawa explained this earlier well ahead of the original plan.

Now please turn to Page 17. For your reference, this shows 2021 amortization initial forecast as well as the 2021 revised forecast and 2022 forecast. The amortization of the former Hitachi Chemical due to the TOB was JPY 36.6 billion for full year basis. But the majority of it comes from the impairment coming from the sold energy storage device systems. With this business sold, the full year amortization will be reduced to JPY 1.5 billion. On top of it, we have some declines in amortization coming from the food wrapping film, printed circuit board business. All in all, it resulted in the decline of JPY 2.2 billion for amortization. So our forecast that the annual amortization for FY 2022 will become JPY 34.4 billion.

Please look at Page 18. Now the consolidated balance sheet. The total assets for the current second quarter, even though we had an increase in the inventory when it comes to the cash and deposit, and the tangible certain assets as well as the goodwill of the intangible assets, they declined. It was down JPY 61.3 billion, becoming JPY 2.1423 trillion. As for the total debt, though, we had an increase in operating debt, interest-bearing debt actually was reduced dramatically, decline of JPY 56.1 billion, becoming JPY 1.4294 trillion.

Interest-bearing debt, down JPY 75.4 billion, becoming JPY 984.8 billion. So it has become less than JPY 1 trillion. As for net assets, of course, we had some increase, thanks to the FX investment. But we had on a quarterly basis loss belonging to the shareholders of the parent and also the payment for the previous year's dividend, the surplus for the profit was reduced becoming the JPY 712.9 billion, down JPY 5.1 billion from the end of the previous fiscal year. These indicators, adjusted net ratio actually improved 0.11 points, becoming 1.72x. And as for the equity ratio actually improved by 0.7 points, becoming 19.1%.

Now please turn to Page 19. This shows our full year forecast for 2021 we announced back on August 3. Please refer to the information together with the segment numbers on Page 20. As for net sales, first, the Petrochemical segmentation actually due to the background of the increase in naphtha price and other materials actually had a higher price than we had expected. Inorganics, due to the tight relationship between the supply demand and in the graphite electrodes, we are able to increase the volume. And Showa Denko Materials segment actually enjoyed good growth due to -- operating income, except for the SHOKO Co. Limited, which has become unconsolidated. In all other segments, we were forecasting an increase in the profit. So the income is going to be as good as the level of the operating income.

And as for the comparison between the first half as well as our forecast for the second half, in the first half, JPY 47.6 billion versus second half, JPY 37.4 billion, down JPY 10.2 billion. I think this is caused by the 3 major factors. First, Petrochemical segment in the second half, then oil price is expected to be flat. So the difference here is going to become much less in the second half.

Secondly, Aluminum segmentation, actually this is having an impact from the impact of the business sales. As for the aluminum and canning business, it is going to be up until the end of the first half. And as for the aluminum rolled products, it is going to become unlisted in the second half. This is resulting in the decline in profit.

Thirdly, the Showa Denko Materials, the integration of cost which is part of the adjustment, and this was earlier explained by me. As you see on the -- yes, compared with first half and second half, yes, there is going to be a decline in the profit. But overall, business performance is going to be unchanged. We are looking forward to have rather good business for the entire business.

[indiscernible] segment and hard disc is going to grow in volume, and the Showa Denko Materials segment will continue its high level of operations and utilization in order to respond to a strong demand coming from the semiconductor-related industry coming from the high level of the utilization. As for carbon, for the entire second half operation, probably it will be running at 90%. Of course, the supply demand relationship is becoming tight.

And for the fourth quarter, we do expect that sales price is going to accelerate going up. As for the volume expected in the second half compared with the first half, probably it is going to be going up by 20% to 30%. As for the second half this year, actually extraordinary loss, actually, on top of the JPY 10 billion which was disclosed back in February forecast. We have the business structure or the cost for the Showa Denko Materials, external loss is going to be JPY 26.1 billion based upon our forecast.

Please look at Page 21. This shows the consolidated cash flow. Cash flow for the first half, thanks to actual free cash flow from the sales of the business becoming JPY 44.9 billion. And this has been used for the payment of interest-bearing debt. As for the cash flow in the second half, the operating cash flow is going to grow. And investment cash flow is going to naturally enjoy the impact from the sales of the business operations. For the full year cash flow, it is going to be at JPY 132 billion level. By the end of the current fiscal year, the interest-bearing debt is expected to come down to the level of JPY 890 billion.

And on Page 22 and onward, actually, I have information for the CapEx and amortization. And also on Page 25, we have some information by segment. Lastly, as I have tried to explained this point, actually all the business lines actually are enjoying good performance. I know we have caused you a concern vis-à-vis our graphite electrodes business. But actually, we actually are making good recovery, as has been explained in February and May explanations. And EBITDA margin for the entire company actually becoming more than 15% and also with the advancing sales of business operations, interest-bearing debt is becoming less than JPY 1 trillion. Net duration has been improved. And we do believe that situations are going to be further improving in the second half. And in December, we are planning to explain our long-term vision for analysts and investors. I do hope that you keep an eye on us vis-à-vis our business management.

[Statements in English on this transcript were spoken by an interpreter present on the live call.]