The gross sales and freight earnings during the first half was Rs 280.84 crore, while the operating profit was Rs 72.84 crore. The company had incurred Rs 33.74 crore towards interest and has provided Rs 24.48 crore for depreciation.

Company executive director (finance) PS Jayaraman attributed the performance to the re-establishment of margins in the chemical business. In the previous year, the international price of the raw material, ethylene di chloride (EDC) skyrocketed, while the price of PVC, the end product, remained low thereby affecting the margins.

This year EDC prices declined to comfortable levels while PVC prices went up improving the operating margins by more than 5 per cent. The company is also operating its plants at full capacity thereby leading tobetter spread of fixed costs. In 1997-98 it faced labour problems which reduced the level of capacity utilisation.

The shipping revenues remained at the same level. Two of the five ships underwent dry docking during this period at a cost of Rs 6 crore which has been fully written off.