Crown Asia Chemicals books P41.3-M income

MANILA, Philippines - Pipes and plastic compounds producer Crown Asia Chemicals Corp. more than doubled its net income in the first semester to P41.28 million from P17.04 million last year on the back of a booming construction industry.

The company said both divisions performed well as sales revenues from pipes and compounds increased 26 percent to P499.27 million from January to June from P395.62 million in the same period last year.

For compounds alone, sales rose 26.18 percent to P316.73 million from P251 million year-on-year, brought about by the 58.73 percent rise in export sales amounting to P166.51 million. More than half (52.57 percent) of the company’s compound products are indirectly exported to foreign-base companies.

Sales from pipes, on the other hand, grew 26.22 percent to P182.54 million from P144.62 million during the first half of 2014 due to bigger order volumes and supply agreements with different contractors and developers. While pipes are purely distributed in the local market, Crown Asia is already looking into the possibility of pipe exports.

Furthermore, the company is forward looking to the next semester as the construction industry continues its growth momentum, including government and private projects through malls, hospitals and business process outsourcing (BPOs) establishments.

The polypropylene random copolymer (PPR) division is also set to be included within the year as production of thermoplastic resins used in wide range of applications has already started in the newly-constructed manufaturing plant and warehouse in Bulacan.

Bulk of the P203.988 million initial public offering net proceeds last April was allotted for the new product, P66.2 million for the PPR construction, and P43.8 million for debt retirement.