Aug 26, 2008. /Lesprom.com/. The effective passing of rising production costs to downstream clients has enabled Taiwan`s leading paper manufacturers, including Cheng Loong Corp. and Chung Hwa Pulp Corp., to generate handsome profits in the first half of this year, Taiwan Economic News reported. Cheng Loong noted it registered NT$481 million ($15.31 million) in after-tax earnings in the first half of this year, up 41% from the corresponding period of last year. Chung Hwa posted NT$381 million ($12.13 million) in net operating profits in the first half of this year, a 1.5-fold increase over a year earlier. Despite the substantial earnings growth in the first half of this year, both companies didn`t continue to achieve substantial earnings growth in the third quarter of this year due to the global economic slowdown, with the firms pinning their hopes on better performance in the 4Q. Other paper-related listed firms, including Taiwan Pulp & Paper Corporation, Yuen Foong Yu Paper Mfg. Co. and Long Chen Paper Co., have yet to publicize financial statements for the first half of this year. Taiwan Pulp scored NT$0.6 ($0.019) in after-tax earnings per share in the 1Q of this year, up 60% from NT$0.41 ($0.013) in the same period of last year. An institutional investor predicted Yuen Foong Yu and Long Chen will see after-tax earnings increase by 10% to 15% year-on-year in the first half of this year. Cheng Loong attributed its earnings growth in the first half of this year to the contribution of business-use paper and household paper sectors, which currently account for 30% of the company`s total sales. In the first half of this year, Cheng Loong doubled product prices. The company said it saw gross profit margin for business-use paper grow 10 percentage points to reach 15% in the first half of this year. Chung Hwa Pulp attributed substantial growth in net operating profits in the first half of this year to tripling the quotations for its major product line-pulp. In addition, its manufacturing subsidiary in mainland China contributed NT$90 million ($2.86 million) to its total sales in the 2Q of this year, up 30% from the previous quarter.