It has been reported that US company Owens-Illinois, Inc., has increased its earnings in both the second quarter and first six months of 1996. Second quarter net earnings rose to US$ 66.6 million, or …
It has been reported that US company Owens-Illinois, Inc., has increased its earnings in both the second quarter and first six months of 1996. Second quarter net earnings rose to US$ 66.6 million, or US$ 0.55 per share, compared with US$ 59.0 million, or 49 cents per share, for the second quarter of 1995, an increase of more than 12%. For the first half of 1996, net earnings rose 15% to US$ 106.2 million or 88 cents per share, compared with US$ 92.3 million, or 77 cents per share, for the first half of 1995. International results were affected primarily by the recent currency devaluation in Venezuela and soft market conditions in Brazil. In addition, downtime for scheduled rebuilds of glass furnaces at some international affiliates was at a higher level than in the second quarter of 1995. However, these factors more than offset the contributions of recently acquired operations in Hungary, Finland, and Estonia. The furnace rebuilds are part of a programme of capital investments by the company“s international affiliates to meet growing demand by installing state-of-the-art equipment to improve productivity and increase manufacturing capacity. An improved cost structure enabled the domestic glass container operations to report higher operating profit despite lower unit volumes and prices. Beer bottle shipments were above prior-year levels but the increase was more than offset by lower shipments of food and juice containers and by the absence of sales of soft drink containers as a result of the conversion from glass to plastic containers