Bangkok--6 Jun--Milan Crosse Creative
Boral Limited, Australia’s leading building and construction materials supplier, and the parent company of Boral Thailand, recently announced a profit after tax of almost five billion baht for the half year ended 31 December 2005. Commenting on the Boral group result, CEO and Managing Director Rod Pearse said that, “despite continued softening in the Australian market and higher energy costs across the group, Boral’s operating performance in the first half was a solid result reflecting effective margin management and growth benefits.”
“In Australia, stronger non-dwelling activity and major projects benefited Boral’s construction materials businesses. However, the continued cyclical downturn in Australian dwellings adversely impacted the results for building products businesses. During the half year, our offshore earnings lifted from 26 per cent to 32 per cent of Boral’s total earnings, reflecting a record result from the USA due to strong margin management, recent growth activity and robust market conditions. Earnings from Asia however, were down,” said Mr. Pearce.
Since 30 June 2005, Boral has announced around nine billion baht of new capital projects, which is in addition to the ten billion baht of previously announced growth projects still under construction/commissioning. Mr Pearce said: “Our growth strategy is an important focus across the group and we are seeing the benefits flowing through to Boral’s results.”
“In the USA, sales volumes are expected to remain at high levels over the six months to June and price increases should recover natural gas and other cost escalations. The benefits of increased concrete and quarry volumes in our Asian Construction Materials businesses in FY2006 will be largely offset by increased cement and fuel costs and very competitive markets.”
Andrew Mercer, Managing Director for Boral Thailand said: “Despite delays to the start of Megaprojects in Thailand the market demand for construction materials grew strongly in 2005. However increased energy related costs affecting production and distribution of all raw materials had not been recovered in concrete pricing. Clearly this is a situation that can’t be sustained and some price increase will need to occur in 2006.”
About Boral
Boral Thailand Concrete & Quarries operates 45 ready-mixed concrete plants and 5 quarries in Thailand. It is the second largest supplier of ready mixed concrete with a national coverage, and operates Thailand’s largest fleet of 400 company owned concrete delivery vehicles. Boral is operating a business established in Thailand for nearly 15 years. It is a part of Boral Ltd, Australia’s leading building and construction materials supplier. Boral operates businesses in 8 Asian countries, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Philippines, Vietnam, Korea, China, and Thailand, as well as in Australia and United States.
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