Tosoh Corp H1 op profit up 4.3% to Yen22.5bn

07 November 2006 08:02  [Source: ICIS news]

TOKYO (ICIS news)--Tosoh Corp posted a 4.3% rise in consolidated operating profit for its fiscal first half partly due to the price rises of main products such as polyethylene, caustic soda and polyvinyl chloride (PVC), the company said on Tuesday.

The Japanese chemical maker’s operating profit for the six months ending 30 September was Yen22.53bn ($191.3m/€150m), up from Yen21.6bn a year ago.

Net sales increased 23.2% to Yen374.7bn from Yen304.06bn in the previous year, while net income decreased 9.1% to Yen11.48bn from Yen12.63bn.

In the chemicals segment, the company cut the costs by diversifying feedstocks and raised the domestic prices of ethylene, polyethylene, propylene and the aromatics products as well as the export prices of cumene and styrene monomer, Tosoh said.

The company said the overseas market condition of chloroprene rubber had improved. Domestic shipments of the PVC paste had increased, and the company raised the product prices.

As a result, the chemicals segment recorded operating income of Yen4.95bn, down 16.3% from Yen5.91bn a year ago, while net sales increased 27.9% to Yen166.06bn from Yen129.88bn.

In the basic raw materials segment, shipments of caustic soda decreased due to turnarounds. Vinyl chloride monomer (VCM) had more exports due to the capacity increase in fiscal 2005. PVC resin also had more shipments.

As a result, operating profit of the segment decreased 95.8% to Yen121m from Yen2.9bn in the previous year, while net sales were Yen126.09bn, up 27.5% from Yen98.9bn.

By: Tomomi Yokomura
+65 6780 4359

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