C.I.G. expects to spend $l7m

Press, Volume CXVI, Issue 34047, 10 January 1976, Page 11

C.I.G. expects to spend $l7m

(N.Z. Press Assn —Copyright) SYDNEY. The Commonwealth Industrial Gases, Ltd, expects to spend about sAustl7m on expansion in the current year to September 30, says the chairman (Sir Kenneth Humphreys) in the annual report. In its latest year C.I.G. spent $20.1m on new manufacturing plant and distribution equipment, and in the past three years the group has outlayed about sslm for capital equipment. Inflation will continue to be the dominant factor in the current year, and it may become increasingly difficult for secondary industry to recover spiralling costs by price increases, Sir Kenneth says. “This period will require even greater concentration on methods of cost reduction if profits are to be maintained.” It is very difficult to predict group earnings for 197576, but C.I.G. has the financial strength, the staff and a profit plan that should ensure that earnings are maintained at the 1974-75 level, he says. In that period C.l.G.’s earnings rose by 29.4 per cent to sB.6m.