KUALA LUMPUR (May 28): Evergreen Fibreboard Bhd's net profit for the first quarter ended March 31, 2018 (1QFY18) dropped 35.77% to RM6.77 million or 0.8 sen a share, from RM10.54 million or 1.25 sen a share in the previous corresponding quarter.

The decline was mainly caused by lower average selling price, coupled with wider foreign exchange loss, said Evergreen Fibreboard in a filing to Bursa Malaysia today.

Revenue, however, grew 5.88% to RM264.18 million against RM249.5 million in the same period last year, mainly due to commercial run of particle board in Segamat, despite lower selling price in Thailand and Indonesia on the back of weakening in US dollar against ringgit.

Looking forward, Evergreen Fibreboard expects a satisfactory performance provided the ringgit-US dollar exchange rate stabilised at the current level and log supply is stable.

The group also foresees a challenging year for 2018, but it will be in a better position to meet the challenges with full-year contributions from the particle board plant and re-commissioning of a medium density fibreboard (MDF) line whose refurbishment is expected to be completed in the near future.

Meanwhile, the group also expected some cost savings to be materialised in 2018 after the upgraded works for several MDF lines were done in second half of 2017.

At 5pm, shares of Evergreen Fibreboard closed two sen or 4.4% lower at 43.5 sen, valuing the company at RM372.25 million.