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Lixil Corp
TSE:5938

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Lixil Corp
TSE:5938
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Price: 1 827 JPY -0.49% Market Closed
Updated: May 15, 2024

Earnings Call Transcript

Earnings Call Transcript
2022-Q3

from 0
S
Shizuka Fukushima
executive

Ladies and gentlemen, we would like to start LIXIL Corporation Third Quarter Financial Results briefing for fiscal year ending March 2022. Today's session is streamed live online as well as on the conference call.

I would like to introduce to you our presenter. From the left, Kinya Seto, Director, Representative Executive Officer, President and CEO; Sachio Matsumoto, Director, Representative Executive Officer and Vice President; Kayo Hirano, Head of IR Office.

I will be serving as MC from IR office. My name is Fukushima. In terms of the material for today's session, those of you watching the web streaming, please take a look at the screen. Those of you participating via conference call, please look at our website and look for the material for today's materials on the IR tab. Today, Mr. Seto will be explaining about the financial results for the third quarter for fiscal year ending March 2022. We will have a question-and-answer session following that. Those of you watching the streaming online, please post your questions through chat functions. We are expecting to close at 5:45.

Without further ado, I would like to ask Mr. Seto to present on the third quarter results for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2022. Mr. Seto, please.

K
Kinya Seto
executive

Hello, everyone. I would like to start the explanation of the third quarter results for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2022. This is the slide that you regularly. So we are showing the IFRS -- in IFRS and the operating profit is a core earnings. And in terms of the profit that we are -- so for the operating profit, we are using core earnings and the revenue, the sales and profit -- sales is revenue.

So this time around, we did well under the circumstances. I think you're well aware, centering around Asia, in various regions, there were COVID issues occurring and there were issues with the supply of the product. And there were issues with the procurement of the parts in our products and also there were logistic disruptions.

The Western countries, Europe and the U.S. was good. And now, we are seeing recovery in Asia, in Indonesia and India. We are seeing a significant recovery in Vietnam and Thailand. The third quarter -- in the third quarter, they struggled, but they are recovering.

There were various issues, but we have been able to overcome it. And because of that, we were able to see the increase in the revenue.

In terms of the profit, there was a raw material cost hike. And for the third quarter, 3 months -- in the third quarter, we were -- we have seen a reduction in the profit but we have been able to respond to various issues in the operations, reduction in the SG&A. And the profit margin is improving in the first 9 months.

So in terms of the progress for the core earnings at 77%, net profit, 88%. So there is a tendency to check for the inventory levels of the product before we -- there is a placing of the order. But there is a strong demand for renovation, the Europe and Americas, we are seeing strong growth and also recovery in Asia. So that's the current situation.

So this is the update on the business environment and the countermeasures that we are taking. So there are actions that we have taken for what has happened. But in addition to that, we are trying to turn things around. And lead ourselves to future growth.

First is the countermeasures that we have taken for what has happened. In terms of the cost -- raw material cost hike, I think that you're well aware of it. But as I have said in the previous sessions, we are increasing our price. However, in the U.S. and Europe, we are able to more easily increase the price, but in Japan there were issues with the catalog and also the wholesale price issues. So there are always time lag in Japan. We have worked on to shorten the time lag. And one of them is digitization, in terms of the price. By showing the price digitally, we are trying to easily -- more easily change the price. By requesting understanding and cooperation of our partners, we have been able to change the price or increasing the price more than twice a year.

Another point, the price range. It is difficult to increase the pricing commodity product. So we would like to shift to high value-added product so that we can reduce the price sensitivity.

Next is supply chain disruption. This happened in many parts of the world. When COVID happened, the first thing that we have done is to narrow down the other product. And this is a very important point for us. When things like COVID occurs, people don't go outside and rather than looking for many products, they would try to buy things that they already know because they can feel comfortable about it. So are we focused on the selling price products. And we were able to reduce the risk through that and also standardization of the parts, we continue doing that. Another is supply chain redundancy. So we have been working on that inclusive of making the production in-house. Through the initiatives that we had already been taking, we were able to continue the manufacturing even with the supply chain disruption and by manufacturing things in Japan, what we use to manufacture in Vietnam or China. And there was, of course, a cost increase factor, but we were able to respond to customers' needs.

Another point is in response to increase of natural disasters and spread of infection. And this will happen in the future as well. And one of the things that we would be able to do is strengthening of our platform production. And by doing that, we would be able to improve the redundancy and resiliency and also converting fixed costs to variable costs. We shrunk the headquarters and also transfer of the headquarters. This is a work style reform but by increasing the remote way of working, we would be able to reduce the fixed cost.

And in terms of the manufacturing, we are changing our process and also we are trying to optimize the allocation of our personnel. Through these initiatives, even if the external environment changes, we would be able to flexibly react, but that's not all, I would like to move on to talk about another point. The changes that's occurring around us. It's becoming more permanent. So towards these permanent changes, I think that we can make use of this and change this into an opportunity. This guy is blessing. So this means that it's throwing us new opportunities. The commodity price will be going up. And what this means is that, in the past, the Japanese housing market was about building the new houses in short amount of time will change because the commodity cost would increase. And people will shift to renovation, changing the outer walls, changing the doors and windows, fix the shutters or the roofing.

In the past, renovation was about a water-related renovation, the toilet, the bath. But going forward, the renovation will be about more other areas. And also in the past, renovation ratio was 1, whereas the new housing construction was 2. In Western countries, renovation demand is 3 or 4 and new housing is 1.

So in those western countries, the new housing market is much smaller than that of the renovation market. So when the Japanese market changes, we would be able to grow our renovation sector even more. So expanding from the water-related renovation to other areas. This would make us grow.

Another is environmental friendliness. There is a lot of pressure to reduce the CO2 emissions. As you know, in the case of Japan, the primary energy consumption is coming the most -- the 40% is coming from the construction industry.

On the other hand, automotive, the trains, the mobility sector, it's only 20%. What this means is the energy consumption is the biggest in the residential area. And 58% of the energy loss is due to the air leakage from Windows. This is the area where Japan is lagging behind. The heat insulation is not so good. So the Japanese government is trying to work to improve the heat insulation through ZEH. but that was mostly for the new housings. If it's automotive, in 5 to 10 years' time, when there is a change in the regulation, the automotive would change to the new cars. But in Japan, there are already 62 residential housings, and it would not change overnight.

So for those 62 million stock housings, 90% of the housing has not been compliant with the construction regulations set up in 2016. And what can be changed the most is the windows. The single pane glass windows is changed -- is used the most in the Japanese housing and if it's changed to multiple pane glass housing, you would be able to reduce CO2 emission by 15 million tonnes. So the energy saving target by the Japanese ministries is 25 million tonnes. But if you change the windows, you would be able to reduce the CO2 emission by 50 million and the windows can be replaced within 3 hours. And if the automotive sector try to move to EV, it does not necessarily mean that they are reducing the CO2 emission because the electricity utilizes fossil fuel for its production. But in the case of windows, it can purely reduce the CO2 emission and also reduce the number of the deaths through heat shock.

So by changing the windows, you would be able to contribute to the various societal issues. So for example, Replus, our product, which is the triple pane glass window, it to cost about JPY 2 million for change. And it would be a JPY 20 trillion market if 10 million windows have been changed. And in the past, the windows market for us was JPY 200 billion or so, and it would be much bigger.

The triple glass window that is for the renovation market, and we would like to start selling that from February, and this would be a growth opportunity for us. And the new normal related business. In Europe, we are seeing good sales from the new normal-related product.

For example, Water Systems. I have been talking about this for a long time now. The water is purified and the carbonated water will be created through it. This is GROHE Blue and it's growing steadily. And the GROHE brand, the new one called QuickFix has been launched. And in Europe and elsewhere, there is a shortage of plumbers. And there is an increase in the DIY need. So this product provides QR code where people would be able to see the video of how to install. So this can be used both by plumbers and the people. And this installation can be done in a very short amount of time. So we have high expectation for this brand and the product line because it's easy to use for everyone.

As for aluminum and resin sash, we are promoting recycling. As for sash, there wasn't much initiative going on for recycling. For recent sash, there was almost no recycling. However, we are providing the resin sash with the assumption that it would be recycled and aluminum sash with the ratio recycle components, the highest, is being provided. And also the utilization of recycled plastic wood. This contributes to CO2 emission reduction. And also, this would be a replacement for the concrete. So this is the highlight for the performance for the third quarter. For the first 9 months, there was an increase in revenue and the core earnings. But for the 3 months, for the third quarter, there was a reduction in the profit. And there were cost increase due to the investment that we had make, but we are reducing the SG&A through digitization. And also, we are increasing the sales of the profitable products in Europe. So I think that we were able to overcome the difficulties for the third quarter.

And for the last quarter, we would like to focus on the core products so that there would not be much variability and we would like to have a stable profit out of this.

In terms of the net profit progress, it's 88% at this point.

And consolidated result, whether it be the gross profit with 33.8% but 34% now year-on-year and core earnings 4.4% increase of 5.7%. And this is as a result of reduction in cost. And also, we have been selling high value-added type of products. And what time hasn't happened in the past in one sense what have we seen on this occasion, which is an increase in price of raw materials and others and lockdown and so forth led to a shortage of products. So we have to fly the product or something that used to be produced overseas being produced in Japan which led to increasing costs. If we didn't have those, our earnings result would have been even better than what is shown on this slide. So it's a little bit disappointing in that regard.

Now by segment, the housing may look as though it is struggling a little bit, but we have been able to see revenue increase. But aluminum, we use a lot of this material, and so that has led to some difficulties and Vietnam production has changed to production in Japan, and we did that for same business. And so we did face some difficulties. But in regards to the water technology, we have been able to increase revenue and profit for our operation, mainly for our international business.

Equity ratio, we're at 32.6%, and our target is 34%. And we have been reducing interest bearing data, and we are making progress by building up on the cumulative profit with progress cash flow.

Last year, we have been working on structural reform, but we don't have that this year. And working capital did increase. But we have been promoting asset-light investment, and we are seeing the free cash flow increase, in fact, what we had to borrow last year, the urgent borrowing that we did because of COVID last year, we have been able to repay that steadily as well.

That was quite the brief explanation. Some detailed slides are made available for you, but we want to use the rest of the time to respond to your questions.

S
Shizuka Fukushima
executive

We would like to move on to Q&A session. We are accepting questions. So please utilize the chat function or e-mails to pose your question.

We would like to go with the first question from Nomura Securities. Fukishima-san's question.

D
Daisuke Fukushima
analyst

From April, you said that you would be increasing the price for the domestically received orders. If you are not able to increase the price, would you be able to cover the cost increase. How should we look at the impact of the cost reduction impact for the fiscal year ending March '23.

K
Kinya Seto
executive

I think that we would be able to do the price increase as we have planned. But as for April -- as of April, there are some products that we would not be able to cover. And so in December, we increased the price. However, there was a commodity price increase in January as well. So there are areas where we would be increasing the price once again. And as there may be some increase in the price for the low unit price product. But in any case, we will be covering the product through the price increase in some way.

And in terms of the cost reduction impact for the fiscal year ending March '23, we will be conducting the career option program once again. And also, we will be shrinking the headquarter functions.

Currently, there is a lot of maintenance costs incurred at headquarters. And by decreasing the floor space, we will be reducing our maintenance cost. And also the sales force will be halved. And in terms of factory, we will be increasing the ratio and also the production on the platform is being improved. And I believe that we can have a significant cost reduction impact from it.

S
Shizuka Fukushima
executive

Next question, SMBC Nikko, Kawashima is asking the next question.

H
Hiroki Kawashima
analyst

For the 3 months for the third quarter, LWT business overseas, ASB, GROHE and for segment overall, was a revenue increase, but profit decrease. But please share with your analysis of the reason as well as forecast going forward.

K
Kinya Seto
executive

Basically speaking, in the third quarter last year, there was a pent-up demand, which has led to good result. But above all, there has been increase in cost that has been significant, whether ASB or GROHE. We did actually increase price 3x, 4x already. But for the third quarter from October to December, rather than material, was a significant increase in logistics costs. Sometimes we had to air flight -- airfreight somethings; otherwise, we would not been able to secure. So the basic -- the factor was cost and because it was cost, we can consider it being temporary, but contain a cost. At the very least, until September this year, we assuming the high level of cost to continue. And so we have to continue to pass on the increase to the customers going forward.

In comparison to Japan, whether it be Americas Standard GROHE, we are able to increase price digitally. So the time like there may not be as large as what we may see in Japan. But of course, the difference to the selling the contract to delivery. So we can't actually increase the price after we sell the product. So -- and the increase in raw materials for the stock and if we have to use those product items with high cost in production. It's not the case that we can always keep this situation. However, basically, in regards to commodities, we will and we have been passing on, and we feel that we'll be able to continue to pass on the cost going forward as well. But what we can't assume in advance the container delays or air freight, these type of things could occur going forward as well. But in comparison to the third quarter, we have not seen any factors that may see situation deteriorate any further.

S
Shizuka Fukushima
executive

Now we would like to respond to the question pose by e-mail.

From BoA Securities. Omuro-san's question. There are 3 questions. So we would like to go one by one. There is an overlap with the previous questions. The first is price provision. The timing of the price increase going forward, the range of the price increase. Could you sort out by product and explain.

K
Kinya Seto
executive

So there is already a disclosed information. And Mr. Hirano will be explaining about that later. This has already been disclosed. But there may be some additional increase in the price and depending on the product. There is a possibility that changing the pricing may be digitized. So for the ones already determined, we will be announcing it on website and through other measures.

U
Unknown Executive

The second point. As for the raw material prices, copper, aluminum, until what month have you been able to cover with forward trading?

S
Sachio Matsumoto
executive

This is Matsumoto and I would like to respond to that question. Basically, we have covered 12 months out through forward trading. So it is not 100% covered, but it's a gradual coverage. So on average, 6 months to 9 months covered in forward trading.

S
Shizuka Fukushima
executive

Next is SG&A reduction. You have been emphasizing on the SG&A reduction. So what are the specific items where you have been able to reduce?

K
Kinya Seto
executive

so the biggest item was new life-related labor cost reduction. The total labor cost has decreased. This was a major item. The second was, now we have changed our way of working to remote working, the meetings and the travel, the business trips as well as dining. Those costs have been reduced.

And in terms of the trade shows. So in Europe, last year, for example, in Frankfurt, there was a ISH event, which was the biggest cost generation event, but we decided to change it to digital presentation rather than being physically there. So in Japan, we have canceled all of -- participating in all of the big trade shows. So there are some which are permanent and which may -- which we may do again, but most of it will be a permanent cancellation.

So we have steered towards remote way of working. So even if the COVID is gone, we would not be spending so much in those areas where we have canceled. And we have sold the headquarters office building, and that will have a positive impact as well. The trade shows is something that's being done industry-wide. And we will be continuing with the ones which is cost effective. But what will be coming back is only a portion of what we have been doing.

S
Shizuka Fukushima
executive

So there is another question from Mr. Omuro. So I would like to show you that question. What is the driver for growth of profit next fiscal year? In terms of the risk factor, in addition to COVID raw material prices and supply chain disruption, is there anything else?

K
Kinya Seto
executive

In terms of the driver of the growth of the profit, we can expect revenue increase. We have been conducting various measures. And in Europe and the U.S., we now are on track for growth. And as for Asia, after the COVID has gone, there would be a pent-up growth. And the Southeast Asia growth had been suppressed, but that would be recovered.

And in case of Japan, there would be a change in the type of renovation. In the past renovation was all about the water-related renovation. But in the other areas, renovation demand will increase. So revenue will increase that's the driver of the growth for profitability. And as for profitability, in the costs related to supply chain and the raw material cost, we would be passing on that cost increase to the product price, so that would have an impact.

And also as for the SG&A, we will continue to reduce the SG&A every year. So that would be a driver of growth for profitability as well.

Another -- in terms of the risk factor, the spread of COVID in China and the lockdown occurring in various cities and the supply of parts being insufficient. That's the biggest risk that I am concerned about. But we have been working to hedge the risk in the past year. And I think that we have a capability of avoiding that risk. However, there may be some unimaginable risks like the shortage of products, which we have never imagined of insufficiency before.

And to your question about, is there anything else other than COVID, raw material and supply chain. There are 2 other things: natural disaster and electricity shortage and country risk natural disaster. I think it's common sense now. And also in China -- for example, in China, there was electricity shortage. And that could occur in other countries, and this may lead to the cost increase. And insufficient production of products. So there is a talk about the wood shortage and the glass, concrete and the basic raw material may see shortage in supply and we need to take countermeasures for that, and we have those countermeasures being built.

And in terms of the country or geopolitical risk, the Ukraine issue that we are seeing now, the Taiwan, China issue. Many problems may arise and inclusive of the cyberterrorism, we need to be able to counter those risks. There are many things that may occur. So those are the risks that we are assuming that may occur.

S
Shizuka Fukushima
executive

So next question is received by chat from [indiscernible] he asked a number of questions. And so I would like to introduce the questions in 3 lots.

And first, in lot of questions is in regards to housing service, how you have fallen short of the plan, the reason for that? And how do you intend to make recovery from that?

K
Kinya Seto
executive

The housing service, we have a company called LIXIL [indiscernible], which is a largest entity here in this area. Now this company, the LIXIL Housing Research Institute, for smaller contractors, we provide the product and also in terms of construction methodology, we'll provide know-how as a franchise.

Now because of lumber shortage, smaller contractors, they have not been able to build sufficient number of houses. And the supply of products to them, we were unable to supply sufficient volume to these contractors. And frankly speaking, this was as a consequence of lack of supportability when it came to LIXIL housing research institute. And LIXIL Realty is the next large company in this area. The LIXIL Reality has a -- is kind of a real estate division where one buys -- when we actually buy houses, we renovate and resell, and that type of activity came to a stall because of COVID.

And your questions asked about falling short of a plan. But based on material, we are actually making comparison on a year-on-year basis. And on Page 13, there is subscription, and we actually sold a business in the last fiscal year. And for realty, we actually sold a very large project last year. We didn't have that this year. And that is the reason why the sales have come down by 38% year-on-year. That was the major reason in that regard.

And the second question is the supply chain logistics issue. When do you expect this to settle down, the demand trend in Japan and the timing of supply becoming normalized. When do you expect that to happen.

Now people around the world have responded in response to various media reports, most optimistic people are saying that after the Olympic games, so after the Chinese New Year, the situation will settle down, but people who are considering the situation more pessimistically are saying that it will take until at least September. So one can only speculate here, not a concrete opinion per se, but I am expecting this year to be quite tough. And that is the assumption that I have adopted for this year.

In regards to the demand trend in Japan domestically, now fundamental demand, I think, is very strong. However, and we had 6 months where we were supply hot water assistance. And so as a consequence, renovation or the new health demand has been pushed back in terms of timing and because of lumber shortage, smaller feed, the contractors are seeing the demand being delayed.

And that links to the next part, when do we expect to see the situation normalize. When that becomes more visible, we are expecting large pent-up demand to come to the surface. I think that is the general view but when would that happen?

Well, in terms of our product, we are able to make assumption. But when it comes to hot water systems or dishwashers, IH units, the manufacturers of those equipment are probably in a better place to respond to that question rather than us responding to that question.

But in regards to the product we are involved with ourselves, we have already seen a normalization taking place already. In the case of toilet, this month, we are seeing situation become normalized. For some products, M+1 or M+2, we are now able to actually supply at the normal situation.

And the third part of the question. In regards to the timing of reviewing your midterm management plan, what is your view?

At this point in time, I'm not thinking there is a positive impact to the business for creating a new midterm management plan. We have a strategy playbook that we use internally to show the course of direction for the company and focusing on core assets.

And in regards to non-core assets, we will divest, reorganized, so that we are able to streamline our organization. And for the business in Japan, we are transforming to enable greater cash generation and for the business overseas, we will invest in those area with higher margins so that we can grow that business more. And last time, focusing on innovation, we've explained some of the innovation cases on this occasion, but we'll continue to work on that. We will just focus on this. I'm not thinking of doing anything else but that.

S
Shizuka Fukushima
executive

From Goldman Sachs Securities, [ Okata-san ]; and from Mitsui Sumitomo Trust Asset Management, [indiscernible]. The same type of question was asked, so I would like to introduce to you the question here. In the United States, there is a concern for interest rate increase. So your U.S. business and the U.S. housing market and shower, toilet sales with this interest rate hike be impacted. But -- or is the impact not so big because most are the existing housing renovation. Is -- the wait is higher. So it is true that the existing housing renovation rate is higher?

K
Kinya Seto
executive

And in retail, wholesale, the renovation demand for existing housing is bigger. And so the impact may not be as big but interest rate hike may be impacting the housing starts in the U.S. So I think there may be an impact from it.

So if we look at the sales situation for American standards as well as order intake, we don't see any concerns at this moment. Currently, the demand is quite strong. So our concern is more about how we would be able to respond to the demand that's coming to us. So we are focusing there.

S
Shizuka Fukushima
executive

Next question is from Mitsui Sumitomo Trust Asset Management, Takigawa-san asking a question.

K
Kinya Seto
executive

In U.S. and Europe, we've see changes in demand. For now, we are not seeing a significant change. As for Europe; however, it had remained strong for quite some time. So we may see a low or a kind of a temporarily weakening potentially, but where we are performing the strongest in Europe right now is Eastern Europe for us. And when you think about Eastern Europe, we are mindful of some geopolitical risk. But in the case of U.S. And it does relate to your -- the previous question, then if they continue to raise the interest rate -- then for the low-income earners, we may see demand come down with potential slowdown in economic conditions, but we are not feeling that at all at this point in time.

Rather, and against the overall, the economic condition, our product, we are making rather an aggressive the order forecasting at this point in time.

In terms of inventory levels, we won't actually build up on the inventory in the current situation.

S
Shizuka Fukushima
executive

Next question is from Morgan Stanley MUFJ Securities, [indiscernible] question.

In the competitors, the shower toilet parts procurement has seen difficulty. How about LIXIL Corporation?

K
Kinya Seto
executive

The procurement is doing well. We are okay and the problem is not persisting. So there is no issue with the production at the last year's levels. But whether we can increase the capacity for production, it would be max 10-plus percent. So there are issues with our capacity. And also, we would not be able to infinitely procure the parts, but we will look for diversification and ways to procure our parts. In that sense, there may be some negative impact to the cost, but we would be able to increase the production.

S
Shizuka Fukushima
executive

Next question is from Nakagawa-san from Mizuho Securities. ASBs, the [indiscernible] from the ratio, in comparison to the first and second quarter, third quarter has come down. But apart from logistics costs, what are the other potential reasons for this? Also in the U.S., we are seeing inflation accelerate. Has this had any impact towards demand?

K
Kinya Seto
executive

Certainly, logistic related cost is most significant. That is a fact. So we are happy to air freight some parts. We have to pay a little extra for the containers so that we can have continuously handle the priority.

In regards of the American standard product, the steel, resin, copper, we are using all those, and we are seeing price increases. However, we are able to increase price of our product in a flexible way in order to respond.

S
Shizuka Fukushima
executive

The next question from Daiwa Securities, [indiscernible] question..

The housing sash sales decrease is continuing, could you elaborate on the recent launch of new products and focusing of the -- focusing of the renovation. Would you be able to recover these sales in the housing sash business?

K
Kinya Seto
executive

Through price increase, I think that we would be able to improve. In the past, we had been sustaining -- suppressing the increase in the price, but we are now asking to increase our price. But there were also the cost hike issues. But in terms of the orders, it's coming back. So in terms of the sales for housing sash business, we believe that it will grow towards spring, I think that the number will recover.

S
Shizuka Fukushima
executive

So next question is a question received by e-mail. And the question is from [indiscernible] Morgan Stanley Securities. [indiscernible] has asked this question. Please explain how we should think about margin for next fiscal year in regards to LWT and LHT. Benefit from increasing prices, for example, is there a large potential for significant pickup year-on-year?

K
Kinya Seto
executive

Well, jumping to conclusion, we're not satisfied with the margin for this fiscal year, for Japan, for LWT and LHT. The profit that we said been able to gain was essentially canceled by the increase in price of commodities. So there, we want to make improvement. This was the case by LHT, but commodity price could continue to increase. So we must think of the time lag in that regard. But there is a potential to make significant improvement here, I think. For your information, the first quarter for this fiscal year, after we increased the price of our product, the increase in price of commodities. Well, we have been able to actually increase the price of our product in line with the increase in price of commodities. So that was most successful quarter. So in that regard, I think there is still room to make further improvements in this area.

U
Unknown Executive

We still have some time for questions. So if you have any questions, please send us your questions. I would like to make supplementary comment. The improvement in the margin does not only come from the price increase. Through the creation of platform production, we would be able to reduce the cost. And also, we have been reducing SG&A costs. And when the productivity improves, factory size can be shrunk and related to the previous questions, so we have stopped doing the business that's unprofitable. So we are comprehensively working on this.

So we still have room for doing something to improve.

So we would like to move on to the next question. From Morgan Stanley MUFJ Securities, [indiscernible] questions.

The core earnings progress and the seasonality considering those 2 factors, the JPY 80 billion in the -- at a full year plan, would that be achievable?

K
Kinya Seto
executive

I believe it's achievable. The third quarter had struggled. It is true. But frankly speaking, we had expected it within our plans so for the fourth quarter, I think that there are things that we can work on. And to your point about seasonality. So in the past, the domestic margin tended to be lower. However, the international market is posting strong growth, so I think that we can make it.

S
Shizuka Fukushima
executive

We still have a little more time. So if you have questions, please feel free to ask. If you have a question, please use the chat function or to send in your questions by e-mail.

[ Kate Mason ] had asked a question. We are making the assumption of being able to achieve JPY 80 billion. But to what extent can we still grow?

K
Kinya Seto
executive

There was a discussion about that previously. But the increasing commodity price has been far more than what we had expected and the logistics issue that we had not assumed and also where we had to produce in Japan rather than in our plant overseas that was outside our expectation. When we take all these factors into consideration, I think we have been able to achieve a pretty good result and we feel as though we had the ability to be able to generate more than JPY 100 billion of earnings, not just some JPY 80 billion. So it's a little bit unfortunate in that regard, but it's still the same, we want to achieve this number that we said that we will achieve for the full year.

U
Unknown Executive

It seems that we have no more questions. So we'd like to conclude the Q&A session. And with this we would like to conclude the third quarter results announcement for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2022, for LIXIL Corporation. We ask for your continued support for LIXIL Corporation, and thank you for your participation today. Thank you.

[Statements in English on this transcript were Spoken by an interpreter present on the live call.]