SINGAPORE — Wilmar International Limited reported on Nov. 11 that its Oilseeds and Grains segment saw pretax profit surge 39% to $243.6 million in the third quarter from $175.7 million in the same quarter a year earlier.

The company said the growth was driven by higher volume and better margins for the soybean crushing and consumer products businesses.

For the first nine months of the year, profit before tax for the segment grew 127.7% to $525.6 million. The sales volume for the Oilseeds and Grains business segment increased by 1.6 million tonnes to 8 million tonnes in the third quarter and to 21.3 million tonnes for the first nine months. Consumer Products sales volume grew marginally to 1.4 million tonnes due to the reclassification of packed palm oil from Consumer Products to Tropical Oils segment.

“The group expects performance of the Oilseeds & Grains segment to remain satisfactory,” said Kuok Khoon Hong, chairman and chief executive officer. “Refining and downstream product margins for the Tropical Oils segment should also improve with the biodiesel mandate in Indonesia.”

The company reported that overall core net profit for the third quarter was $359 million or $4.30 earnings per share, down 16.4% from $429.7 million or $6.60 in the same period as last year.

Sales were also down 7.6% to $10.6 billion from $11.5 billion. Revenue for the quarter were low due to commodity prices, Wilmar said.

Also during the period, regional currencies such as the Malaysian Ringgit, Indonesian Rupiah and Chinese Renminbi depreciated significantly, but the company did not suffer foreign exchange losses due to effective hedging.