Buhler earnings up
Buhler Industries Inc. reported net earnings of $8 million, or 32 cents per share, in the year ending Sept. 30, 2007, up from $4.4 million, or 18 cents per share, last year.
The manufacturer of Versatile tractors and other farm equipment did this despite lower sales. Total revenue was $166.2 million, down 5.2 percent from the year before partly because of the rising Canadian dollar, the company said in a news release.
Accounting for the increased profit were sales of assets not considered core to Buhler’s long-term objectives, including land, a parkade and a manufacturing division.
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Last fall, Russian manufacturer Combine Factory Rostselmash Ltd. bought 80 percent of Buhler for about $181 million.
“The industry is projecting higher tractor sales in the next year and we expect our volumes to increase in part due to stronger demand in the tractor industry and the fact that our new majority owners, Combine Factory Rostselmash Ltd., have established networks in the (Commonwealth of Independent States),” the company said.
Other factors contributing to profitability included reduced interest expense, lower depreciation expense, a general reduction in expenditures and a loss incurred in one division reducing the provision for taxes.
Bio-oil plan receives funding
Ag-West Bio is investing $300,000 in Titan Clean Energy Projects Corp. to help its plan to build a bio-oil plant near Saskatoon.
Titan would use fast pyrolysis technology to convert agricultural residues into bio-oil and char.
In pyrolysis, biomass is subjected to intense heat in an atmosphere without oxygen, producing synthetic gas, oil and char.
The investment will help identify customers and markets for bio-oil and build the plant and another facility that will compress agricultural residue into briquettes to be used for energy production or specialty animal feed.
“Titan’s vision of using environmental technology processes to produce value added products from underutilized biomass resources was very appealing,” said Ag-West president Ashley O’Sullivan in a news release.
