Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal said Thursday its nine month net profit dropped 20.3 percent as it slashed its full year profit forecast

The Tokyo-based company, one of the world's biggest steelmakers, said its earnings for the April to December period came in at JPY 153.6 billion, while sales rose 3.6 percent to JPY 4.18 trillion.

Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal blamed part of the profit slump on a JPY 68.6 billion extraordinary loss that it took due to an unexpected slowdown at its seamless pipe maker Vallourec & Sumitomo Tubos do Brasil.

Nippon Steel also cut its net profit forecast for the fiscal year to March to JPY 180 billion, from an earlier estimate of JPY 250 billion.

It said "The global economy maintained an overall moderate growth pace as solid corporate profits and private consumption supported an ongoing improvement in business conditions in the United States. But the European economy continued to be weak and the trend of slowing growth in China and other emerging countries became more pronounced".

It also said demand at home was flat, partly owing to delays in construction projects.