Hulamin headline EPS up, sees lower sales volumes

JOHANNESBURG, Feb 10 (Reuters) - South Africa's Hulamin Ltd , which makes semi-fabricated aluminium, said on Tuesday its full-year normalised headline earning per share increased by 16 percent, but sales volumes were expected to fall in 2009. The group said its operating profit, before corporate structuring costs, had grown 22 percent to 465 million rand ($48.59 million), while turnover rose 8 percent to 7.1 billion rand. However, sales volumes in both its rolled products and extrusion operations dropped 6 percent compared to the previous year, mainly due to the global recession. Hulamin, whose main business is aluminium rolling, said it would reduce output, stop recruitments and eliminate contract positions in order to curb the impact of the global recession. "We remain confident of our longer term growth outlook and will shortly complete the rolled products expansion as planned, although the initial ramp up of capacity is likely to be slower due to the weaker market conditions," chief executive Alan Fourie said in a statement. The company said it would declare a final dividend of 13 cents per share. (Reporting by Muchena Zigomo)