Mainboard-listed Rotary Engineering said on Wednesday that its net profit for the third quarter of 2014 rose 37 per cent to $10.89 million from $7.93 million in the corresponding period last year.

The company - which provides engineering, procurement, construction and maintenance services supporting the oil and gas and petrochemical industry - saw reveue slipping by 7 per cent in the three months to 30 September to $172.02 million from $184.49 million in the year-ago epriod.

Commenting on the results, Mr. Roger Chia Kim Piow, Rotary's chairman and managing director said, "Our drive to increase productivity has paid off and will continue to pay off as we fine-tune all our work processes and cost control measures. In an era of increasing operational costs and intense competition, this is the way forward."

The company said it achieved a gross profit margin of 17 per cent for the first nine months of 2014 compared with 12 per cent for the corresponding period last year.

It said its higher productivity resulted from innovations in construction, efficiencies in the materials supply chain, improved project management capabilities, upgrading of workforce skills, and leveraging on the use of IT for project analysis and control.

In its results statement, Rotary said it expects to end the current financial year on significantly improved financial performance as compared to that of the previous year.

But it added that financial and economic uncertainties remain until signs of recovery in the United States become clearer, while short term oil price volatility and tight foreign labour market in Singapore will put pressure on margins.

The company's order book currently stands at $303 million.