Sri Lanka's Piramal Glass said profits rose 5.6% to 724.3M rupees in the year to March 2012 from a year earlier, exports were doing well, but warned against higher energy costs this year. The firm reported earnings of 76 cents/share for the year, in accounts filed with the Colombo Stock Exchange. Revenues rose 5.8% to 5.5BN rupees, expenses rose 7.9% to 3.95BN rupees and gross profits rose 0.7% to 1.54BN rupees during the year. New bottles consumed in the liquor market had fallen due to the import of second hand bottles from India. CE Sanjay Tiwari said the imports for the liquor firms were "substandard, branded, used second hand bottles." Re-using bottles, however, is generally considered to be an environmentally-friendly practice. The company's exports to Australia and New Zealand had grown to 1.37BN rupees in 2012 from 1.22BN a year earlier. Mr Tiwari said an increase of furnace oil costs by 80% early in 2012 had affected the firm's operating profits.
