PETALING JAYA: Press Metal Aluminium Holdings Bhd saw a 10.9% decrease in net profit to RM102.6 million for the first quarter ended March 31, from RM115.1 million in the previous corresponding quarter due to lower profit from operations.
Revenue in 1Q’20 decreased by 15.7% to RM1.83 billion compared to RM2.17 billion in 1Q’19.
Group CEO Tan Sri Paul Koon said Press Metal faced a challenging start to the year as the escalation of Covid-19 resulted in reduced economic activities and shutdowns in industries, which impacted aluminium demand and prices.
“However, we have partially locked in some favourable pricing from our forward hedging which mitigated some of the impacts from the prevailing low-price environment.
Prices of key raw materials such as alumina have also normalised to a more reasonable level compared to 2019.
The movements of the US dollar and renminbi also worked in our favour, as our sales are denominated in USD and carbon anode are purchased in renminbi,” he said.
Looking ahead, Koon said the group is aiming to commission its Phase 3 smelter in January 2021, increasing capacity by 42% to1.08 million tonnes from 760,000 tonnes per annum.
