AYS Ventures plans to grow export business

SHAH ALAM: Steel trader AYS Ventures Bhd is looking to grow its export business contribution to 25% from the current 10%, given that the strengthening dollar favours the company's revenue portfolio as its products are traded in US dollars.
"We are aiming to look into more export, due to the current weakening of ringgit, which is actually an advantage for our (export) business," its executive director Oh Pooi Foon told reporters after the company's AGM yesterday.
"Going forward, we will continuously explore for new markets," she added, without elaborating further.
The company trades and markets various steel products, including beams, plates, channels, angles and flats, pipes, high tensile deformed bars, and mild steel round bars.
It also trades and markets construction materials such as cement, bricks, timber, plywood, floor and wall tiles, precast products, and plumbing and sanitary wares.
Oh said the company exports its products mainly to neighbouring countries with Singapore as its major trading partner, which constitutes about 90% of its trading business, while the rest are Vietnam, Thailand, China, Indonesia and Myanmar.
However, she said that domestic demand will continue to anchor the company's growth this year, driven by private sector spending as well as various major construction and infrastructure projects undertaken by the state including the Refinery and Petrochemical Integrated Development project in Pengerang and Mass Rapid Transit Line 2 project.
The company's net profit for the fourth quarter ended March 31, 2015, grew by 26.2% to RM5.68 million from RM4.5 million in the previous corresponding quarter.
Revenue also increased by 4.84% to RM152.12 million, from RM145.10 million previously, mainly due to higher sales volume contributed from both trading and manufacturing divisions, resulting from the higher demand.
For the fourth quarter, its trading revenue increased by RM3.06 million to RM136.378 million, compared with RM133.32 million a year ago, mainly attributable to the higher sales volume despite higher cost of goods sold.
Moving forward, she expects the market condition will remain positive in the near term, despite the dampened crude oil prices and the short term impact of the Goods and Services Tax implementation.
"We are cautiously optimistic on our growth performance going forward. We believe the demand for building materials are still there, because there is no replacement for steel products. Despite the downtrend in global oil prices and weakened currency, people still need to buy it," she added.
AYS was up by 1 sen, or 1.92%, at 27 sen yesterday with 28,000 shares exchanged hands.