Chairman of the Cumbria-based company, James Cropper, said that, as a result of a strong first half, overall group profit, prior to the IFRS Pension Adjustment charge and pre-tax, would be "materially ahead of our expectations" for the half year up to 26 September 2009, despite depressed sales of technical fibre products.
He claimed that the fall in technical fibre sales was the result of restructuring at a major customer and de-stocking at others, and said that there was some uncertainty as to when the anticipated recovery of these products would occur.
Cropper also warned that the price of pulp may continue to increase. For example, Northern Bleached Softwood Kraft pulp increased from $580 per tonne at the beginning of the financial year and has reached $707 per tonne in September.
"The latest forecast from some analysts is that prices will continue to rise for the remainder of this year to peak between $750 to $800 per tonne," Cropper added. "This trend will dampen profitability of JCSP in the second half of the financial year."
However, the chairman predicted that, barring any unforeseen circumstances, the results for the year ending 27 March 2010 will be ahead of market expectations.
