Oct. 30 (Bloomberg) -- Mitsubishi Corp., Japan’s largest trading house, raised its full-year profit forecast by 9 percent after oil prices rebounded and coal sales increased.

The Tokyo-based trading house expects net income of 240 billion yen ($2.63 billion) in the year ending March 31, up from the 220 billion yen it forecast on May 8, according to a statement to the Tokyo Stock Exchange today. That compares with the median 245 billion yen profit estimate of 17 analysts surveyed by Bloomberg.

Crude oil prices have more than doubled on the New York Mercantile Exchange since the global recession sent the benchmark to as low as $32.40 a barrel on Dec. 19. Energy and commodities including oil, gas and coal are the main income sources for Mitsubishi, generating more than half of its profit.

“This year’s setbacks during the economic downturn lowered prices of global oil and coking coal, the main drivers for Mitsubishi’s bottom line,” Katsuya Takeuchi, an analyst at UBS Securities Japan Ltd., said before today’s announcement. “But Mitsubishi will perhaps benefit next year and the following one from resurgent prices of steelmaking coal,” said Takeuchi, who has a “buy” rating on the stock.

Shares of Mitsubishi rose 3.5% at 1,976 yen at 1:14 p.m. local time. The stock has gained 31 percent in the past six months, outpacing the 14 percent increase in Nikkei 225 Stock Average.

Steelmaking Coal

UBS forecasts the price of steelmaking coal will climb next year to $170 a metric ton and $175 in 2011 from the high $120s this year as demand revives along with the global economy, Takeuchi said.

The BHP Billiton Mitsubishi Alliance, the world’s largest coking-coal exporter, agreed with Nippon Steel Corp. to benchmark steelmaking coal prices of $115 to $125 a ton for this year, Citigroup Inc. said in March. That’s a reduction of as much as 62 percent from a year earlier.

Oil prices in New York averaged $59.27 a barrel this calendar year, compared with $99.75 in 2008. The bill for LNG landed in Japan, the world’s largest importer of the fuel, dropped 44 percent in the six months ended Sept. 30 from a year earlier, according to the finance ministry.

To contact the reporters on this story: Shigeru Sato in Tokyo at ssato10@bloomberg.net; Ichiro Suzuki in Tokyo at isuzuki@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: October 30, 2009 00:41 EDT