The company posted a profit on revenue of $248.9 million for the period and earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation of $109.6 million.
The company also announced an interim fully franked dividend of 2.5c each and changed its policy to distribute up to 60% of its net profit to shareholders, up from its previous payout rate of 35-45%.
Emeco said it was on track to meet its $165 million growth program in Australia and Canada for the 2012 financial year.
Emeco managing director Keith Gordon said the demand for mining equipment had been strong across the period, particularly in Australia.
“In the second half we are expecting all three regions to perform well, with the Canadian winter mining program and Indonesian coal production underpinning higher average utilisation in our offshore business over the second half,” Gordon said.
“We remain focused on improving returns and growing the business in core mining markets.
“The $165 million 2012 financial year growth investment program for Australia and Canada is progressing as planned with approximately $125 million of this equipment delivered by December 31, 2011.”
Gordon said the company had not noticed any significant changes in customer activity in its core mining business.
“In the immediate future, we will continue to focus on delivering superior mechanical uptime to support our customers’ production targets and in addition to the committed organic growth capital, will continue to explore opportunities to further strengthen the business,” he said.
“I am confident that we will make further progress towards achieving our objectives over the remainder of the financial year and beyond.”
The company said the $93 million of its growth capital which had been allocated to its Australian operations had already been largely deployed with equipment sourced from the global used equipment market.
Emeco said its Canadian operations had experienced a disappointing first quarter with lower-than-expected levels of activity in the oil sands market, however, activity had picked up with the beginning of the winter program.
The company said it would invest $30 million into its Indonesian arm to support thermal coal production after it was hit by high maintenance costs earlier in the period.
Gordon said the company would push ahead with its $50 million investment into the Chilean copper-gold market.
The company previously said it would use the funds to buy ten 240-tonne trucks and related ancillary equipment and start operations in the 2012 financial year.
This story first appeared on ILN's sister publication MiningNews.net.
