Japan Steel and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Both Report Q2 Losses

[Asia Economy Reporter Yujin Cho] Japan Steel and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, which are controversial for evading responsibility for the forced labor of Koreans, have shown significantly worsened performance in the second quarter of this year.

Japan Steel announced on the 4th that it recorded a net loss of 42 billion yen (approximately 470 billion KRW) in the second quarter of this year, turning to a deficit from a profit of 33.3 billion yen in the same period last year. This is the worst second-quarter performance since 2012, when it recorded a loss of 87.5 billion yen.

The spread of the novel coronavirus infection (COVID-19) dealt a direct blow to performance deterioration as production activities in major steel-consuming industries such as automobiles decreased. Previously, Japan Steel had forecasted a loss of 200 billion yen (approximately 2.25 trillion KRW) for the second to third quarters (April to September) of this year.

Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, which announced its performance the day before, also reported a record loss of 57.9 billion yen (approximately 650 billion KRW) for the second quarter.

Japan Steel was finally defeated in October 2018 in a lawsuit filed by Korean forced labor victims in Korea demanding compensation such as consolation money, but has not implemented the final judgment. The plaintiffs are proceeding with securing a total of 400 million KRW worth of compensation claims by seizing shares of PNR, a joint venture of Japan Steel in Korea.

Mitsubishi Heavy Industries was also finally defeated in November 2018 in a lawsuit filed by Korean forced labor victims, but like Japan Steel, refuses to comply with the judgment.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.