Japanese daily Nikkei reported that Nippon Steel Corporation's fiscal 2011 group pretax profit will likely to fall by 40% to about JPY 130 billion due to lower steel prices, a stronger yen, and growing competition from Asian rivals.

The daily said that Nippon Steel's rivals JFE Holdings Inc and Sumitomo Metal Industries Limited have each projected a JPY 100 billion pretax profit for fiscal 2011. But they will likely fall short by tens of billions of yen.

Nippon Steel's actual crude steel output for the current fiscal year now looks likely to come in 8% lower than the previous year, at about 30 million tonnes.

The Nikkei had last week reported crude steel production for the company to decline by over 7%.

(Sourced from www.reuters.com)