South Port says full-year profit will exceed guidance

South Port says full-year profit will exceed guidance on log trade, fertiliser

Dec. 21 (BusinessDesk) - South Port New Zealand Ltd., which operates the nation’s southern-most port at Bluff, said 2011 earnings will exceed its forecast range because of increased volumes of logs exported to China and a return to normal output from the Tiwai Aluminium Smelter.

Full-year profit will exceed the $3.5 million to $3.9 million range given in the company’s 2010 annual report, South Port said in a statement today. In the first five months of the year, total cargo volume was 1.09 million tonnes, up from 820,000 tonnes in the same period a year earlier.

“This additional tonnage is attributable to strong Chinese log demand, higher than expected fertiliser application in the region and increased imports of stock food,” the port company said. “In addition, greater containerised cargo has been generated by the MSC Capricorn service plus the Rio Tinto Alcan operated NZAS Tiwai Aluminium Smelter has reverted to more normal production levels.”

Volumes from the smelter recovered after a transformer explosion took out a third of production last year.

The company will give a new forecast with its first-half results on Feb.10, it said.

South Port’s shares were unchanged at $2.52 today and have fallen about 7% this year.

(BusinessDesk)

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