expects fy09 net profit ahead of fy08

Sydney - Wednesday - November 12: (RWE Aust Business News) -
Orica (ASX:ORI) expects net profit for FY09 to be higher than FY08, the
chief executive Graeme Liebelt said.
"So far we haven't seen any slowdown in the majority of our
markets," he told corporatefile.com.au.
"In our main mining markets, demand continues to be quite strong
and we expect that to continue.
"However, we certainly see a slowdown in some of the Australian
manufacturing markets we go into within our chemicals business, and in
the paints business demand has been relatively steady in Australia but
down in New Zealand.
"In mining services we need to watch carefully.
"If the severe economic downturn that's likely to come reduces
China's growth rate and that of other developing nations, it will play
into demand in the mining sectors.
"But we remain optimistic and expect we'll see continued firm
demand through the course of 2009.
"We've been expecting to see improving volumes come through as
infrastructure constraints were released, and in the second half of 2008
we saw stronger growth than we did in the first half."