C.S.R. Expecting Higher Profits

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30471, 19 June 1964, Page 15

C.S.R. Expecting Higher Profits

.(New Zealand Press Association) AUCKLAND, June 18.. Raw sugar milling in Australia and Fiji was particularly favourable during the year ended March 31 last because of high production and high sugar prices in export markets, say the directors’ report of the Colonial Sugar Refining Company, Ltd., issued by the New Zealand Sugar Company, Ltd., today.- .

The benefits of high prices were shared, with cane grow-" ers, who in fact received the larger share in both countries. The directors say that a world price of £4O stg. for a large proportion of exports is satisfactory to millers as a

component of the overall market for home consumption and export sugar, .especially where the crop and tonnage of raw sugar are large. On . present indications group profit is likely tb be at the same level in the current year as in 1963-64, directors forecast.

As reported, group profit for 1963-64 jumped £2,889,022, or 64.2 per cent, to a record £7,395,830. The estimate at present for the group’s 1964-65 sugar output is 765,000 tons—about 113,000 tons more than last year’s record result, directors say.

Further increases in output are planned fo.r the two following years. The company’s Australian mills slightly exceeded the previous peak, while the ton-

nage produced in Fiji rose by 51,000 tons to a record 299,000 tons,. During the year, the world sugar price fluctuated .over a wide range, reaching peaks of £lOO stg. a ton. The • present price of £46 stg. a ton is satisfactory to millers, directors say. . : Not Expected While the future of the world price is riot predictable in the long-run, a return to the extraordinarily low prices of a few years ago is not expected. During last year profits from the company’s activities in building materials finproved substantially. ■ Sales reflected the general increase in building activity and .were at a record level. The improvement is continuing, directors say. Sales of industrial chemicals by C.S.R. Chemicals Pty., Ltd. (60 per cent owned), also increased materially. They continued to be buoyant in the current year, although pressure on prices is persisting.