Increase in specialty alumina sales boosts TOR Minerals' Q2 income

Nasdaq listed TOR Minerals International, Inc. has reported a year-on-year (YoY) increase in net income to $87 million for the second quarter of fiscal 2016, up from a loss of $107 million the previous year. Increased investments and major capacity expansions in its speciality alumina division have paid off for the Texas, US-based mineral manufacturer.

The company owes its comeback to the decision to shift focus from its loss-making TiO2 division. It had sought to strategically divest its synthetic rutile assets, which helped it to offset other cost effects.

Highlights for Q2 2016 as compared to Q2 2015 include:

• Revenue decreased one per cent to $9.9 million
• Net income of $87,000, versus 2Q15 net loss of ($107,000)
• Diluted net income per share of $0.03, versus 2Q15 net loss per share of ($0.04)

During the second quarter of 2016, gross margin increased to 11.9 percent of sales, versus 9.6 percent during the same period a year ago. Gross margin improvement was related to improved efficiencies and lower raw materials costs, which were partially offset by lower selling prices.

TOR Minerals' operating expenses during Q2 2016 were $1.1 million, flat in comparison with the same period last year.

“Strategic initiatives to divest our SR raw material productions assets and continued investments in our specialty alumina and barium sulfate businesses resulted in a return to profitability during the first half, as well as substantial improvements in our balance sheet," said Dr. Olaf Karasch, Chief Executive Officer at TOR Minerals International. “Our cash balance grew by $2.5 million and we reduced debt levels by $1.3 million during the first half of the year.”

"We expect that several new large-volume specialty alumina applications will be moving into production during the next year, and put the alumina business back on a double-digit growth trajectory for 2016 and for several years to follow," concluded Dr. Karasch.

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