JFE Holdings Inc. signaled the upturn in Japan’s steel industry could flatten in the year ahead, forecasting that next year’s profit is likely to remain the same as this year’s elevated levels.

Current profit will be about 230 billion yen ($1.9 billion) this fiscal year, slightly lower than the 231 billion yen for the 12 months ended March 31, JFE said Thursday.

Net income rose 25 percent in the fourth quarter, slowing from growth of 40 percent in the first nine months, according to Bloomberg calculations based on full-year results released Thursday. The Tokyo-based company’s shares closed down 1.7 percent in Tokyo Stock Exchange trading after earlier being up as much as 1.8 percent before the results were released.

The nation’s second-biggest steelmaker has been the beneficiary of tumbling prices for coal and iron ore used in steel production. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s measures to drive down the yen and boost construction spending has also boosted profitability.

The steelmaker’s market value has doubled since Abe’s election in December, 2012. The gains have been made in the face of a global supply glut that has seen the nation’s steel federation warn of possible action against cheaper South Korean and Chinese imports.

“The severe business environment continues” in overseas markets amid overproduction at Chinese mills and lower demand amid weaker oil prices for energy-related steel products such as seamless pipes, Vice President Shinichi Okada told reporters in Tokyo on Thursday.

Spending Plans

Tokyo Steel Manufacturing Co., Japan’s biggest producer of steel from scrap iron, forecast earlier this week that operating profit would fall in the year beginning April, pushing down its shares by 6 percent.

Eiji Hayashida, who became JFE’s president on April 1, has pledged to play catchup with global rivals.

On Thursday, the company said it plans to invest 200 billion yen outside Japan over three years. JFE also plans 650 billion yen of capital spending in Japan in the same period. The company will cut an additional 110 billion yen from costs at its steel business and said it could raise its dividend ratio to as high as 30 percent from 25 percent.

Output in the first quarter will likely fall 4 percent to 5 percent compared with the three months ended March 31 as inventories are pared, according to JFE.