Daido Steel (5471 JP) produced FY25 (March year-end) 1H OP [IFRS basis] of ¥18,464mil (+1.1% YoY) on sales of ¥284,499mil (+0.4% YoY). Both sales and OP surpassed guidance which called for OP of ¥12,500mil (-31.5% YoY) on sales of ¥275,000mil (-3.0% YoY), thanks primarily to stronger than expected demand for ship engine valves in the open die forging business and despite having incurred about ¥2,300mil of costs related to the Superalloy Manufacturing Process Transformation Project, one of the firm’s ongoing strategic investments in the current MTP. The Mid-Term Plan [MTP], which ends in FY26, was revised down to reflect (1) a larger than expected decline in steel product sales volumes, (2) sluggish auto production and weaker than expected industrial machinery-related orders and (3) increasing lack of clarity in the business environment. Daido Steel commits to a stable dividend pay-out ratio of more than 30%. To ensure a stable dividend payment, the firm newly introduced DOE, which commits 2.5% of DOE as minimum of annual dividend during the tenure of current MTP.