Sumitomo was the first of the five trading houses to report - back on 31 July, three trading days ahead of the others. We cover it here to complete the picture.
What was reported
| Quarter | Year ago | Change | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Revenue | 1,949.4 | 1,787.9 | +9.0% |
| Gross profit | 390.0 | 358.5 | +8.8% |
| Profit before tax | 152.3 | 210.3 | -27.6% |
| Net profit | 190.1 | 170.9 | +11.2% |
| Underlying profit | 177.0 | 137.0 | +29% |
In billions of yen
The puzzle: how pre-tax profit falls while net profit rises
The answer is a nickel mine in Madagascar.
Sumitomo sold its Madagascar nickel mining and refining business, Ambatovy, at a loss - and that is what pushed pre-tax profit down 27.6%. In addition, equity-method income fell ¥20.1 billion.
But that disposal carried a tax effect: the tax line swung to a positive ¥45.0 billion, against minus ¥25.9 billion a year earlier. That benefit is what turned a 27.6% pre-tax fall into an 11.2% post-tax rise.
And so the right number is underlying profit
Excluding asset sales and one-off items, Sumitomo's underlying profit jumped 29% to ¥177.0 billion.
The split: mineral resources ¥38.0 billion (from ¥21.0 billion), non-resources ¥126.0 billion (from ¥111.0 billion), corporate ¥13.0 billion (from ¥5.0 billion). One-off items contributed just ¥13.0 billion, against ¥34.0 billion a year ago.
The most important figure in the report
Sumitomo publishes the commodity prices it actually realised - and that is the figure explaining all five trading houses.
| Quarter | Year ago | Change | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Copper | $12,852/tonne | $9,340 | +37.6% |
| Coking coal | $238/tonne | $184 | +29% |
This is the number behind Mitsubishi's 215% jump and the doubling of Marubeni's resources arm. Not an estimate - a realised price.
The segments
Rose: mineral resources to ¥25.4 billion from ¥10.6 billion, on copper and Malaysian aluminium; energy transformation to ¥32.6 billion from ¥24.0 billion, largely from asset replacement on a Belgian offshore wind project; chemical solutions, communication services, and Digital AI - a new segment created on 1 April 2026.
Fell: automotive, to ¥11.7 billion from ¥39.7 billion. But that is almost entirely a base effect - last year contained roughly ¥30 billion of gains from selling the US Midas tyre business. The segment's underlying profit actually rose by about a billion yen.
Guidance, and the stated risk
Full-year guidance was held at ¥630.0 billion, up 4.9%, with the report stating explicitly "no revision to forecasts".
And the reason the company names recurs throughout the deck: the Middle East. Among other things, shipments of energy tubulars to the region fell in the quarter, and the company expects the decline to continue. That is the risk for which guidance was not raised despite a strong quarter.
A technical note: Sumitomo executed a four-for-one share split effective 1 July 2026, and all current-year per-share profit and dividend figures are on the post-split basis.
The full map of Japan's earnings week: The Week Japan Reported
My Angle
A personal opinion of Ilan Abramov - not advice, not a recommendation
Sumitomo is the cleanest example in the group of why one headline is not enough.
Pre-tax profit fell 27.6%. Net profit rose 11.2%. Underlying profit jumped 29%. Three numbers, three stories, one company. And the right one - the one describing the business - is the third.
And what I take from this report above all is the price table. Copper plus 37.6%, coal plus 29%. When five different companies report the same quarter and one of them publishes the prices it actually realised, you get verification of what the others only describe in words.
And my cautious note: Sumitomo did not raise guidance despite a strong quarter, and named the reason - the Middle East. A company warning while the numbers are good deserves more attention than one warning when they are bad.
