Hydro Agri profits rise
Hydro Agri profits rise
IMPROVED fertiliser markets and reduced costs helped boost performance at Hydro Agris plant nutrition arm in the first half of 2000.
Operating income rose to £56.2m, compared with a loss of almost £2m during the same period last year. This is despite one-off charges of £26.8m mainly to cover restructuring and closure costs of fertiliser plants after the firms decision to prune production to cut over-capacity in Europe.
This helped cut fixed costs by about £38m on the year, and also encouraged higher fertiliser prices, it says. Calcium ammonium nitrate values have risen by about £30/t since the latter half of 1999. This improved market contributed a further £63m. But production costs rose by £27.5m, mainly due to higher energy costs, and that figure is set to grow, says the firm. *