Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd. and Kawasaki Heavy Industries Ltd. released contrasting profit results for fiscal 2004 on Thursday, with the former suffering a dive in group net profit and the latter posting a sizable increase.

In its consolidated earnings reports for the year to March 31, Mitsubishi Heavy said its net profit plunged 81.4 percent from the previous year to 4.05 billion yen, due mainly to sharp rises in materials prices.

Kawasaki Heavy said its net profit jumped 81.2 percent to 11.48 billion yen as a result of profit-recovery efforts.

Mitsubishi Heavy posted a pretax profit of 12.54 billion yen, down 57.9 percent, on a 9.2 percent rise in sales to 2.59 trillion yen. Per-share net profit dropped to 1.20 yen from the previous year's 6.46 yen.

The company said that although sales rose on favorable showings in the shipbuilding, power systems, aerospace and machinery divisions, higher materials prices overwhelmed efforts to strengthen operational structures for better productivity and improve profitability.

In contrast, Kawasaki Heavy saw a 73.3 percent jump in pretax profit to 21.04 billion yen, on sales of 1.24 trillion yen, up 7 percent. Per-share net profit rose to 7.92 yen from 4.37 yen.

Kawasaki Heavy attributed the overall sales growth to a sharp sales increase in its vehicle division that resulted from a jump in exports, especially for Taiwan's high-speed railway system.