"I admit that many parties are concerned the economic slow-down will drag down the growth of the industrial sector, but I believe these factors will have only a minor impact on Porn Prom Metal, because the company has new suppliers, and our products are more various. For existing suppliers, they've secured a strong presence in the market. That's why we are confident our sales revenues will grow from last year, even though the economy is in a downward cycle," Chamnarn said yesterday.

Porn Prom Metal is a distributor of copper, brass and copper-alloy products.

The company will pay attention this year to new potential products and control sales and administrative expenses, so that the gross profit margin will increase, he said.

The company has three new suppliers: Vista Metals, Gaoxin Zhangtong and Alcoa.

Meanwhile, the company announced it would pay an annual dividend of 50 satang a share on May 25 for last year's performance.

The company paid an annual dividend of 8 satang a share for its 2005 performance.

"In 2006, the company earned a relatively high profit," Chamnarn said. "We thus would like to give returns to shareholders by paying a special dividend 50 satang per share, accounting for 52.39 per cent of the company's net profit - a level higher than Porn Prom Metal's dividend-allocation policy. The company's net profit in 2006 jumped 358 per cent to Bt152.7 million, from Bt33.37 million in 2005."