US chemicals firm Harris Chemical North America, Inc. (HCNA), a subsidiary of Harris Chemical Group, Inc. (HCG), recently reported record operating results for the third quarter of fiscal 1997.
For t…
US chemicals firm Harris Chemical North America, Inc. (HCNA), a subsidiary of Harris Chemical Group, Inc. (HCG), recently reported record operating results for the third quarter of fiscal 1997. For the quarter ended 28 December 1996, net sales were US$ 151.1 million compared to US$ 133.5 million for the same period the previous year; operating income of US$ 32.2 million for the quarter was up from US$ 24.9 million for the third quarter of fiscal 1996. Net income for the quarter was US$ 5.8 million compared to net income of US$ 2.0 million for the fiscal 1996 third quarter. For the nine-month period, HCNA net sales increased 9.3% to US$ 343 million compared to net sales of US$ 313.9 million for the same period in the previous year. Operating income year-to-date of US$ 41.2 million was up 53.0% from US$ 26.9 million for the same nine-month period in fiscal 1996. The company reported a net loss of US$ 26.9 million for the nine months compared to a net loss of US$ 31.6 million for the same period the previous year. “Our year-to-date results remain ahead of those in fiscal 1996 in three of our four major product lines,” said D. George Harris, company chairman. “Salt, soda products and specialty fertiliser products performed well throughout the first nine months of fiscal 1997 because of both volume and price improvements. Overall market conditions for most of our businesses continue to remain favourable,” he added, “but we do see some temporary softness in soda ash demand.” Commenting on the results, Harris said, “Our soda products business continues to perform well with year-to-date sales up 8.4%, the result of increased demand earlier in the year, higher pricing and improved performance at our plants following the completion of HCNA“s Long Range Process Plan. To date, the company“s Searles Valley facility has achieved record soda ash production, although both soda ash and boron chemicals production have not yet reached the levels we anticipated. As a result of the shortfall in boron production, boron sales for the third quarter decreased 14.9% and year-to-date sales decreased 5.3% compared to fiscal 1996.” Soda product sales were US$ 31.2 million in the quarter, up from US$ 30.5 million in fiscal 1996, and US$ 90.7 million for the nine-month period versus US$ 83.6 million for the same period last year. Boron chemical sales were US$ 14.4 million for the third quarter of 1997, down from US$ 17.0 million in the prior year“s third quarter. Sales for this product line for the nine-month period of fiscal 1997 were down to US$ 46.4 million versus US$ 49.0 million for the same period in fiscal 1996. Gross margins for the third quarter were 30.9%, up slightly from 30.1% in the prior year; fiscal year-to-date gross margins were 24.1% compared to prior year gross margins of 22.2%, largely because of better pricing for salt and soda products and increases in production volume and operating improvements at the company“s salt and specialty fertiliser plants.