Wellman Q2 profits rise 16% before charges from outage

31 July 2001 20:53  [Source: ICIS news]

HOUSTON (CNI)--Polyester producer Wellman saw its "normalised" operating profits rise 16% for the second quarter, excluding the $6.6m (Euro7.5m) impact from a South Carolina plant outage with the company on Tuesday crediting improvements in the market for polyethylene terephthalate (PET) resins.

For the quarter ended 30 June, the Shrewsbury, New Jersey-based company reported normalised earnings of $8.1m despite a slight decline in sales to $284m. After deducting charges for the outage at its Palmetto Plant in Darlington, however, Wellman posted official net income of $1.5m with earnings/share of 5 cent.

Those figures compare with net income of $7m on sales of $286m for the same period last year.

Despite an enhanced market for PET, Tom Duff, Wellman's top executive, warned the company is bracing for a more challenging environment in the second half of the year as the apparel and textile retail market slows down.

By: Gary Taylor
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