South Korea's Korea Zinc Co Ltd, the world's largest refiner of zinc, said on Friday its revenue and net profit jumped last year despite falls in production and sales, helped by bullish metal prices.
Zinc prices, a late starter in the current metals price boom, started taking off late last year and hit a 7-1/4-year high of $1,307 a tonne on January 24 on strong demand, especially from China.
Korea Zinc's revenue rose by a quarter to almost 1.2 trillion won ($1.17 billion) in 2004 from last year, and its net profit almost tripled to 117.5 billion won, the company reported in a statement to the stock exchange.
Korea Zinc said that firmer LME prices helped boost revenue and net profits.
In contrast, Korea Zinc's refined zinc sales fell 2.5 percent to 416,885 tonnes last year from 2003, a separate statement from the company said.
The company's zinc output last year was 425,221 tonnes, down from its earlier target of 430,000 tonnes and 427,518 tonnes refined in 2003.
Korea Zinc said late last year it was targeting 2005 refined zinc sales of 432,000 tonnes.
Korea Zinc and Young Poong Corp, which is also a zinc refiner in Korea, had aimed to raise their combined zinc output in 2004 by 5.7 percent to 681,000 tonnes.
No data on Young Poong output was available.
Three-month London Metal Exchange (LME) zinc and sister metal lead were trading at $1,298/$1,303 per tonne and $921/$926 per tonne as of 0738 GMT on Friday respectively, against $1,294 and $927 in London on Thursday.
Korea Zinc shares closed up 1.9 percent at 36,900 won on Friday, outperforming a 0.51 percent gain in the broader market.
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