Healthy Margins Help Dreyfus to Report Profit Rise in 2014

Global trader, Louis Dreyfus Commodities, reported last week that the company’s full-year profits rose in 2014, driven by the ability of increased volumes and healthy processing margins to offset lower market prices. The company reported a 2014 net income of $648 million, up slightly from $640 million in 2013, and net sales of $64.7 billion in 2014, up 1.7% from 2013.

Abundant crop supply aided the company’s processing activities and allowing the group’s Value Chain Division to post a 19% rise in operating result. The group also claims that it was affected by last year’s instability in Ukraine and Russia, although the impact was minimal.

With decreased capital investment in 2014, down 14% from 2013 to $592 million, CFO Claude Ehl-inger explains that the focus of investment now is “primarily on logistics.”