Jun 2008 Financial News

TCL upgrade to boost profits

Jun 16, 2008

A MENU OF MEASURES that include switching cement exports from bags to bulk is a high priority for Trinidad Cement Limited (TCL) to improve operating profit at its Barbadian subsidiary, Arawak Cement Company Limited.

TCL recently webcast its 2007 financial highlights and fielded questions online from the public to its team headed by director and chief executive officer Dr Rollin Bertrand.

The TCL CEO admitted that Arawak's 2007 profit slumped 50 per cent below 2006 earnings owing to a troublesome transition from orimulsion fuel to Petcoke.

When BARBADOS BUSINESS AUTHORITY asked what specific steps were being taken to increase productivity at Arawak, the TCL team itemised the optimal "use of Petcoke fuel, which has a higher caloric value than orimulsion; new quarry lands with readily available high quality raw material; switching cement export from bags to mainly bulk; introducing blended cements and expanding export production by ten per cent".

TCL officials said output was being increased to 350 000 tonnes a year.

Arawak also operated below potential in the first quarter of TCL's fiscal 2008 ended March 31, contracting the group's earnings per share from TT 20 cents to TT 19 cents (BDS$0.06).

Petcoke, the new fuel being used at Arawak, is said to be more harmful to the environment than orimulsion, but TCL maintained that it was the most utilised fuel in cement production and TCL was "aggressively working towards achieving world-class standards in protecting the environment".

In fact, said the question-and-answer panel, "all the cement companies were ISO 14001 certified in 2006 and 2007, [meaning] we have all the necessary systems in place as per international standards".


Source:
Stacey Russell
Nation News
Monday June 16, 2008

http://www.nationnews.com/story/26607406677819.php