Hong Kong-based Cosmos told the Hong Kong Stock Exchange in a Sept. 23 filing that machinery sales in the first six months of year fell 44 percent, to HK$215.6 million (189.5 million yuan), and the company reported a loss HK$24.8 million (21.8 million yuan), compared with a profit of about HK$14 million (12.3 million yuan) in the first half of 2008.

It did report indications of improvement, but was very cautious: “Although there are signs of recovery in the market in the second half of the year, a number of uncertainties still exist.”

Director Raymond Li said the company is hopeful of a return to profitability in the second half of the year, and thinks monthly sales by year end could be 15-25 percent below pre-crisis levels, which is an increase from current figures.

He said the company has trimmed staff and some production at its South China location, in Dongguan, Guangdong province, particularly as its export-oriented customers in that market continue to be very cautious in their capital equipment spending.

Demand for export machines fell by more than half in the period, although there have been signs of a pickup from South American and Southeast Asia, Li said.

Li said the company’s facility in East China, in Wuxi, Jiangsu province, held employment steady.

The company overall reported it had 5,500 employees in all its business units, including plastic product manufacturing and printed circuit boards. That’s down from 6,000 a year ago.

One bright spot has been in energy-saving machines, while competition in the market for general purpose machines intensified and profit margins fell seven percent, the company said.

Li said the company has been aggressively shifting its machinery product mix toward those energy-sippers, including launching its Se series servo-driven pump machines at the Chinaplas exhibition in May.

Those machines now account for about one-third of sales and that could rise to 50 percent by year-end, he said.

The Se series includes a servo-pump that Cosmos developed on its own, instead of importing Japanese technology in previous versions of its servo-pump models.

The company has been extending its home-grown servo equipment to some of its other machines, including rubber injection equipment and some of its sheet metal equipment, Li said.

He said the company is also doing a feasibility study on a “modified” version of an all-electric press, but he declined to reveal details.

Cosmos is generally considered to be China’s third-largest press maker, although it can be hard to get reliable figures outside of Cosmos and its two larger Hong Kong-listed rivals, Haitian International Holdings Ltd. and Chen Hsong Holdings Ltd.

Cosmos also has a division that makes plastics products at several factories throughout China, including packaging, cutlery and optical products. That unit reported sales fell 23 percent, to HK$149.2 million (131.4 million yuan), and profit dropped 85 percent, to HK$781,000 (668,000 yuan).