Japanese vinyls producer Tosoh Friday posted a 79.8% year-on-year surge in consolidated net profit to Yen 16.9 billion ($166.9 million) for the fiscal year ended March 31.
The company attributed the spike to a reduction in extraordinary losses for fiscal 2012-13 (April-March) to Yen 2.7 billion, from Yen 5 billion a year earlier, when the results were impacted by an accident at its vinyl chloride monomer plant at Nanyo in western Japan.
Tosoh's operating profit for fiscal 2012-13 rose 3.1% year on year to Yen 24.5 billion, while its revenue fell 2.7% to Yen 668.5 billion.
Its petrochemical segment posted an operating profit of Yen 10.5 billion, down 15.6% from a year earlier, while its chlor-alkali segment posted an operating loss of Yen 1.6 billion, narrowing from a Yen 10 billion loss a year earlier.
A fire and explosion at the company's 550,000 mt/year No. 2 VCM plant in Nanyo in November 2011 killed one employee and led to the shutdown of all three VCM plants at the site with a total production capacity of 1.2 million mt/year. The company restarted the 250,000 mt/year No. 1 plant in May 2012 and 400,000 mt/year No. 3 plant in July 2012. The No. 2 plant remains shut, with no restart date scheduled.
For fiscal 2013-14 (April 2013-March 2014), the company forecasts posting net profit of Yen 23 billion, operating profit of Yen 40 billion and revenue of Yen 730 billion.
