China Fibretech narrows loss to 1.1 million yuan for Q3 2017

MAINBOARD-LISTED dye maker China Fibretech has released a series of announcements on its financial results for the first three quarters of the fiscal year 2017.

The company managed to narrow losses by 99.8 per cent to 1.1 million yuan (S$225,846) for the third and latest quarter ended Sept 30 last year, compared with a loss of 466.9 million yuan in the same period a year earlier.

The improvement came even though revenue fell 25.9 per cent to 5.6 million yuan. This was largely as the quantity of fabric processed decreased to 536 tonnes for the first nine months of 2017 as a result of a temporary production shutdown, from 1,030 tonnes previously, China Fibretech told the Singapore Exchange on Monday.

For the nine months to Sept 30, China Fibretech booked a loss of 2.2 million yuan, compared to 467.8 million yuan previously. Revenue climbed 6.4 per cent to 21.8 million yuan.

Gross profit shrank to 2.5 million yuan, while gross profit margin fell to 11.2 per cent from 12.2 per cent previously, due to a decrease in the quantity of fabric processed during the period.

China Fibretech said that it is expecting a challenging 2017 for its dyeing business, based on the result obtained in 2016 and the group's order books to date.

The company had resumed production on the first week of August 2017 after meeting the local authority pollution control requirements.

"The China textile industry remains uncertain as output had been slow due to domestic factors and weak recovery from the international market," it said.

"The effect of various domestic factors such as rising costs from cotton prices and labour costs, has a direct and/or indirect effect on our customers and consequently in their demand for our service."

Trading in shares of China Fibretech have been suspended since November 2015.