BPI.L Share News (BPI)

Heavy plastics maker British Polythene anticipates that results for the first six months will be ahead of the same period last year. "This outcome is despite reduced demand and a difficult credit environment and has benefited from actions taken to align capacity with demand," said the group.Input costs have moved lower helping margins to recover, although polymer costs have started to rise again in recent months. It said these costs will remain volatile, but at much lower levels than we experienced a year ago.The group said it has also benefited in its UK operations from a more favourable rate of exchange, assisting our export sales and reducing price pressure from imports. "Our restructuring programme is going to plan and we continue to expect a year of progress in 2009," it said.