KARACHI, March 2: The financial figures emanating from sugar companies show that the year ended September 30, 2001 was a bitter year for the industry.

Numerous companies are coming up with dreadful losses in place of profits of the earlier year. Some of the worst: Chashma Sugar Mills reporting loss of Rs61 million for the latest year, in place of a huge profit of Rs224 million earned the year ago. Its sales dipped to Rs712 million from Rs1,182 million.

The company, which paid cash dividend at 50 per cent to the shareholders last year, skipped a payout this year. Kohinoor Sugar Mills, likewise, made a loss of Rs35 million against profit of Rs19 million last year. The latest loss went to raise the company’s accumulated deficit to Rs69 million.

Losses at Sindh Abadgar’ Sugar Mills increased to Rs22 million from Rs4 million last year and the accumulated losses mounted to Rs24 million. The company’s sales had increased to Rs737 million, from Rs663 million but the top line growth did not translate into an improved bottomline.

Sales at Husein Sugar Mills also improved to Rs 575 million, from Rs 645 million, yet the company returned a net loss of Rs 91 million in place of net profit of Rs12 million the earlier year. Thal Industries Corporation Limited Layyah Sugar Mills posted loss of Rs84 million in place of profit of Rs17.4 million earned in 2000.

And there are other stunning examples: Dewan Sugar showed an after-tax loss of Rs47 million, replacing after tax profit of Rs37 million the year ago. Clearly a giant in the industry, Dewan’s sales stood at Rs1,753 million for the latest year, though down from Rs1,783 million of the last year, yet not a great reason for its bottomline to dip in the red.

Sales at Premier Sugar Mills plummeted to Rs186 million, from year ago sales at Rs630 million and in consequence, the company returned net loss of Rs11 million in place of a huge profit of Rs176 million in 2000.

Frontier Sugar Mills had earned profit of Rs18 million in 2000, but plunged into a loss of about an equal amount with its sales down to Rs91 million, from Rs160 million.

Sales at Crescent Sugar Mills remained about stayed put at around Rs1.3 billion, yet its profit tumbled to Rs6 million, from Rs80 million in 2000.

Some companies that defied the industry’s dismal trend included: Sanghar Sugar; Mehran Sugar; Habib Sugar; Al-Abbas Sugar; Baba Farid and Al-Asif. They managed to either reduce losses or improve profits.

Shahmurad Sugar even managed to return to an after-tax profit of Rs20 million from loss of Rs15 million the earlier year. But its improved results had more to do with reduction in operating costs, than higher turnover.

The industry financial appear to have deteriorated more in the second half of the year.

There are nearly three dozen publicly traded sugar companies and many would wait until the end of March—the last date by which the financial results for the year ended September 30, 2001 ought to be released—before coming out with the 2001 balance sheets.

Directors’ reports would list the reasons for the devastating results in 2001, but some of the industry laments already known include: reduced size of sugarcane crop for second year in a row; high cost of sugarcane; disruption of cane crushing for several weeks for want of supplies; low yield; lifting of embargo— for a time— on imports from India at low 10 per cent customs duty and cut in customs duty on import of the sweetener, which was said to have caused sugar glut of some 700 thousand tons.