The world’s largest producer of methanol saw a significant ramp up of production in the second quarter, thanks to a new plant in Egypt and a re-start in Medicine Hat.
On Thursday, Vancouver-based Methanex (TSX:MX) announced a second quarter net income of $40.5 million compared with $14.8 million for the same quarter in 2010.
The increase was directly attributable to new methanol production coming out of its plants in Egypt and Alberta, said company president and CEO Bruce Aitken.
“This led to higher earnings in the second quarter and these plants provide further upside for the remainder of 2011 when the full impact of their production will be reflected in our earnings,” Aitken said.
The company produced approximately one million tonnes of methanol in the second quarter compared with 765,000 tonnes in the second quarter of 2010, marking the company’s highest quarter of production since 2007.
Business in Vancouver last caught up with Aitken in March, who said at the time the company’s new Egyptian plant was strategically located near natural gas reserves and markets around the Mediterranean. (See: “Growing gasworks in tumultuous times” – issue 1114; March 1 to 7.)
Methanex finished the quarter with US$246 million in cash.
At press time, the company’s shares were up $0.23 to $28.33.
Joel McKay
Twitter:jmckaybiv