LONDON (ShareCast) - Cost-cutting helped industrial chain maker Renold to rack up a 42 per cent rise in half-year underlying operating profit to 5.1m pounds.

The group is closing a factory and moving production to other plants to boost profit by £3.2m and has saved £1.5m in net overheads.

It said the gains came against a background of continuing but moderating falls in revenue.

Renold's chain business faced a 1% revenue dip as an 11% drop in orders due to delays in capital projects in the Australian mining industry offset low single digit growth in orders in Europe and North America.

Revenue in the company's torque transmission business fell 6% but orders were down just 2% against a year ago compared to a 12% fall in the previous six months.

Chief Executive Robert Purcell said: "The macro-economic environment remains subdued and we remain focused on internal self help measures."

PW

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