Tokyo - Nippon Steel Corp on Wednesday revised upward its full-year earnings forecast, despite reporting a decline in profits for the second quarter.

Japan's largest steelmaker expects net profit to increase 7 per cent to 330 billion yen (3.49 billion dollars) for the full year that ends on March 31, up from initial projections of 255 billion yen.

The company said the upward revision was due to falling prices of row materials and crude oil.

Sales were expected to rise 11.9 per cent to 5.4 trillion yen.

For the July-September period, Nippon Steel's net profit dropped 12 per cent to 78.92 billion yen from the previous year.

Sales grew 17 per cent to 1.4 trillion, but operating profit fell 4.7 per cent to 128.71 billion yen in the second quarter

For the first six months through September, the company's net profit was down 8.4 per cent to 161.68 billion yen year-on-year.

Operating profit declined 6.1 per cent to 248.41 billion yen, and sales were down 12.3 per cent to 2.6 trillion yen in the first half of the business year starting in April. (dpa)