Southern Cable Group Berhad has orders in hand of RM549.7 million, which will be positioning the company comfortably as these are orders to be delivered over the next two years.
The orders in hand comprise RM225.7 million unbilled purchase orders from new customers, as well as RM324 million order book from existing customers, including recently-won contracts, such as the RM30 million contract supply rectifier systems to Telekom Malaysia Berhad, and the RM18.5 million contract to supply underground cables and conductors to Tenaga Nasional Berhad.
This comes on the back of a resurgence in infrastructure initiatives by corporations to catch up after 2 years of lag, these also include the nation digitalisation aspiration through the 12th Malaysian Plan and 5G rollout.
MD Mr. Tung Eng Hai“We have seen an encouraging uptrend in customer enquiries in recent months, indicating the return of expansionary sentiment across all sectors, including power distribution and renewable energy, telecommunications, construction and infrastructure, as well as manufacturing sectors.
Southern Cable has upped it operations back to pre-Covid levels, adding this will bring its rollout back to peak condition compared to half-capacity in 3Q21, the company also aims to ensure the smooth fulfilment of orders and deliveries to its clients.
For the nine months ended 30 September 2021 (9M21), Southern Cable’s revenue grew 16.1% to RM455.9 million from RM392.6 million a year ago, due to higher sales of power cables and wires, as well as higher average selling prices to account for the increase in metal-based material costs for ongoing contracts.
Of total 9M21 revenue, sales of power cables and wires increased 27.1% to RM398.4 million from RM313.3 million, while sales of communication cables and wires decreased 37.4% to RM11.2 million from RM17.9 million a year ago. Revenue from control and instrumentation cables and wires reduced 52.7% to RM10.0 million from RM21.2 million, and related products and services declined 9.7% to RM36.3 million from RM40.2 million a year ago.
Despite revenue growth, 9M21 net profit stood at RM8.1 million compared to RM16.5 million previously, as the Group recorded higher plastic-based and metal-based raw material prices.
In the third quarter, Group revenue declined 18.7% to RM127.2 million from RM151.6 million last year, on weaker sales of power cables and wires and the impact of various phases of Movement Control Orders. Consequently, 3Q21 net profit decreased 81.2% to RM1.4 million from RM7.3 million last year due to the lower revenue, as well as the impact of higher plastic-based and metal-based raw material prices.
