JFE Holdings has reported a 58% fall in April to December 2011 profit as exports fell and prices sagged and it downgraded its full year profit outlook by 60%.

JFE, which is heavily exposed to Asia's export market, booked JPY 59.31 billion in recurring profit, which is pretax and before special items.

It trimmed its annual profit outlook to JPY 40 billion only three months after it slashed the forecast more than a fifth to JPY 100 billion in October 2011. That is less than half the mean estimate of JPY 93.9 billion in a poll of 18 analysts in Thomson Reuters.

Demand growth in China, the world's top producer and consumer, has decelerated in a knock on effect of Europe's debt woes, while the strong yen curbed exports and boosted imports of cheaper priced steel in Japan, pressuring prices.

(Sourced from www.cnbc.com)