28/06/2011 (Bernama) - Chemical Co of Malaysia Bhd (CCM) aims to expand its pharmaceutical, chemical and fertiliser businesses regionally, as well as in the Middle East.

Its executive director, Amirul Feisal Wan Zahir, said the expansion plans would be based on the growth potentials in Indonesia, Singapore and Vietnam.

"CCM group will continue to deliver value-added products and services that consistently exceed customer's expectations, in tandem with our change from being a process-driven business to a knowledge-based enterprise.

"We will also build a strong workforce instilled with our core values such as integrity, being responsible and excellence," he told reporters after the company's annual general meeting here today.

Amirul said various capital expenditure initiatives had been implemented across three core businesses, enabling the company to scale production capacity and improve efficiencies to amplify its competitiveness and presence in the industry.

"Our pharmaceuticals division can take advantage of our state-of-the-art plant in Bangi to efficiently scale production and enlarge its geographical penetration.

"Our vaccine fill and finish facility, which will be ready in 2012/13, will open up opportunities in new areas such as biologics and vaccines," he said.

On the chemical division, he said, the company planned to introduce a wider and better product range to serve the customer's need through its own label products and homegrown formulation.

On the fertilisers division, Amirul was confident demand could be sustained due to the buoyant prices of crude palm oil, strategic location of the group's plants, coupled with weather conditions and rising labour costs that would induce higher usage of compound fertilisers.

"The new plant in Lahad Datu, Sabah, is expected to be commissioned in the second half of this year. It is poised to capture the potential extra demand from the Borneo market and boost our revenue further," he said.

For the financial year ended Dec 31, 2010, the group's pre-tax profit grew almost four-fold to RM59.2 million from RM15.6 million in 2009.

Revenue jumped 4.4 per cent to RM1.64 billion from RM1.57 billion previously.