In Machinery & Infrastructure, although taxes associated with asset sales increased, COCF increased by JPY23.1 billion to JPY115.7 billion, mainly due to higher dividend income from associated companies. In Chemicals, COCF decreased by JPY26.6 billion to JPY24.3 billion mainly due to a fall in prices of fertilizers, fertilizer raw materials and feed additives. In Iron & Steel Products, COCF decreased by JPY6.1 billion to JPY1.2 billion, mainly due to lower dividend income from associated companies. In Lifestyle, COCF increased by JPY10.7 billion to JPY29.7 billion, mainly due to higher dividend income from associated companies. In Innovation & Corporate Development, COCF increased by JPY1 billion to JPY19.2 billion. Other factors, such as expenses, interest, taxes, and others which are not allocated to business segments, totaled JPY29.7 billion.
Please turn to page 14. I will now explain the main changes in profit by segment compared to the first half of the previous fiscal year. Profit for the first half decreased by JPY82.8 billion to JPY456.3 billion. In Mineral & Metal Resources, profit decreased by JPY112.6 billion to JPY134.6 billion due to the fall in prices of metallurgical coal and iron ore, the decrease in profit contribution following the sale of SMC, a metallurgical coal business in Australia, in the Q3 of the previous fiscal year, and the impairment losses on copper business in Chile. In Energy, although there was an absence of the valuation loss on derivatives that was recorded in LNG trading in the previous fiscal year, profit decreased by JPY29.4 billion to JPY26 billion mainly due to the impact of oil production facility maintenance, as well as a drop in oil & gas prices and a decrease in LNG dividends.
In Machinery & Infrastructure, profits increased by JPY74.7 billion to JPY164.4 billion mainly due to the gain on sale of a European electric locomotive leasing business and good performance of multiple businesses such as ships, VLI, and construction machinery. In Chemicals, although a valuation gain was posted, profit decreased by JPY25 billion to JPY14.3 billion mainly due to a fall in prices of fertilizers, fertilizer raw materials and feed additives. In Iron & Steel Products, profits decreased by JPY11.3 billion to JPY3 billion, mainly due to impairment loss in associated companies and a lower demand. In Lifestyle, although there was the absence of the valuation gain on R-Pharm put options recorded in the same period of the previous fiscal year, profits increased by JPY43.7 billion to JPY69.4 billion, mainly due to valuation gain on the fair value of Aim Services and good performance of the processed food business in North America.
In Innovation & Corporate Development, although a valuation gain on the fair value for Altius Link was recorded, profits decreased by JPY9.4 billion to JPY26.1 billion, mainly due to a year-on-year decrease in profit from asset sales. Other factors, such as expenses, interest, taxes, et cetera, which are not allocated to business segments, totaled JPY18.5 billion. This page shows the main factors that impacted year-on-year changes in profit. Base profit decreased by approximately JPY61 billion. Although there was absence of the derivative valuation loss in the previous fiscal year in LNG trading, and performance improvements in IPP business as well as coffee trading, there was an increase in interest expenses, a decrease in profit contribution following the sale of SMC in the previous fiscal year, and lower profit from trading mainly in Chemicals.
Resources costs/volume decreased by approximately JPY32 billion mainly due to a decrease in production volume resulting from maintenance of some production facilities, as well as an increase in exploration costs in energy upstream businesses, and increases in fuel and labor costs in the Mineral & Metal Resources business. Asset recycling resulted in an increase of approximately JPY62 billion mainly due to gains from the sale of MRCE, a European electric locomotive leasing business. In commodity prices and Forex, profit decreased by approximately JPY53 billion. For commodity prices, profit decreased by approximately JPY41 billion due to lower oil & gas prices, and JPY40 billion due to a fall in metallurgical coal, iron ore, and copper prices, which resulted in profit decrease by approximately JPY81 billion in total.
