The group said its plans to decommission the smelting facility in Butterworth in stages.
PETALING JAYA: Malaysia Smelting Corp
(MSC) Bhd will continue to remain cautious while focusing on operational efficiencies and improvements in its business.
In a filing with Bursa Malaysia, the tin metal producer said the recent conflict in the Middle East and the Russian Ukrainian war has continued to weigh down on the global economy, leading to surging energy prices, with negative implications on global trades and inflation.
However, the group will remain resilient and expects its Pulau Indah plant to register higher efficiency from lessened manpower and operations costs.
Moreover, the group also said its plans to decommission the smelting facility at Butterworth in stages, which will commence this year and is on track to achieve cost savings of up to 30%.
“For the tin mining segment, the group continues to focus on improving and increasing daily mining output and overall mining productivity. This includes expanding its mining activities and tin mine resources,” it said.
Meanwhile, the group posted a lower profit of RM85.05mil for its financial year ended Dec 31, 2023 (FY23) results compared to RM98.31mil in FY22.
Its revenue was also lower at RM1.4bil compared to RM1.5bil year ago, due to the lower average tin price of RM118,100 (2023) as compared with RM136,700 (2022) per tonne, despite higher sales quantity of refined tin in 2023.
On its quarterly results, the group’s revenue was higher at RM404.6mil for the fourth quarter ended Dec 31, 2023 compared to RM391.1mil for the same quarter last year.
Basic earnings per share stood at 2.20 sen compared with 6.20 sen previously.
The group said this was on the back of higher profits from increased sales of refined tin derived from the processed tin intermediates during the first half of FY23, higher sales of by-products and higher smelting revenue.
However, its profits were significantly lower at RM9.36mil for the quarter under review compared to the RM25.83mil recorded for the same quarter a year ago.
Its board of directors declared a single-tier dividend of RM0.07 sen per share for FY23.
“The book closure date and the date of the payment of the dividend will be determined and announced at a later date,” the group said.
