Press Release 16/Aug/99 Padaeng Profited 111 Million Baht in the First Half Padaeng Industry Public Company Limited reported its first half performance result showed a net profit of 111 million baht. A recovery in the local zinc market led to the 27 percent increase in local sales from the previous year and the 7 percent increase in zinc production. Mr. Pinit Vongmasa, President and CEO of Padaeng Industry Public Company Limited, reported that the performance result for the first half of 1999 showed the company had a net profit of 111 million baht. The main reason being the much improved situation in the local zinc market. As a result, the company had total domestic sale of 30,990 tonnes, a 27 percent increase from the same period last year of 24,385 tonnes. In addition, zinc production output increased 7 percent while cost of production decline by 17 percent. However, the net profit in the first half of this year declined when compared with the previous year which had a net profit of 465 million baht. This was due to the 734 million baht or 26 percent drop in sales revenue as a result of the much stronger Baht and the decline in the world zinc price. In addition, the gain from foreign exchange this year was only 6 million baht compared with last year of 148 million baht. As for the consolidated income statement for the first six months, Padaeng and its subsidiaries have 75 million baht net profit compared with the same period last year which showed 465 million baht net profit. Mr. Pinit made the following summary for the performance results of the first half of this year. Mae Sod mine produced in total 95,367 tonnes of zinc silicate ore. The zinc refinery produced in total 47,528 tonnes of zinc metal, which consisted of 36,529 tonnes of zinc ingots and 10,999 tonnes of zinc alloy. The production of zinc alloy had grown by 69 percent compared with last year. This is consistent with the company's policy to enhance the product sales value added by increasing the production capacity of zinc alloy since its higher sales value than zinc ingots. In addition, the refinery used more zinc silicate ore in combination with zinc concentrate than in the previous year, from 28 percent to be 33 percent, which resulted in lower the unit cost of production. On the marketing side, the company had total zinc metal sales of 48,068 tonnes. The proportion of domestic sales to export was 64 to 36 compared with the same period last year of 47 to 53 respectively.