South East Fibre Exports (SEFE) has recorded its first loss in over 40 years of operations and expects to record another loss for the current calendar year.
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“We knew it was coming. We’ve known from the time the Japanese tsunami hit in March last year,” SEFE managing director Peter Mitchell said yesterday.
In its financial statement to the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) released this week, South East Fibre Exports (SEFE) disclosed a loss of $126,430 for 2011.
“Japanese demand (for the product) went down when three Nippon mills were impacted by the tsunami last March and that, in combination with the high Australian dollar which has remained high, has hurt our Chinese sales.
“However we are fortunate to have shareholders that will continue to support us when the profit isn’t there. Given that paper demand is expected to grow by three to four per cent per annum this isn’t unexpected.
“With over 700 people directly and indirectly employed by the local timber industry, this is a good thing,” Mr Mitchell said.
“We’re expecting another loss this year. We don’t know the magnitude of that as yet. If the Australian dollar falls that could change. With the Reserve Bank cutting the rate by .5 per cent, if that flows on to the price of the dollar which it has in a very small way already, we could see it drop further.
“But until the banks pass it on its tough times. We’re lucky. We’ve got supportive shareholders and customers who still want the product,” he said.
Anti-wood chipping campaigner Harriett Swift, convener of the Chipstop campaign, understandably had a different take on the posted loss.
“SEFE is still exporting near record levels of woodchips, almost a million tonnes a year, but it cannot make a profit,” she stated in a media release issued yesterday.
“It is astounding that after exporting 922,551 tonnes of chips, a figure exceeded only four times in the past 15 years, they could not break even.”