The latest EBITDA figure of US$134.7m was up significantly on the US$93.4m recorded for the corresponding 2004 period.

Company president Bruce Aitken said today from Vancouver that he was delighted with the results.

“The earnings and cash flows that we achieved in the first quarter are our highest in 10 years,” Aitken said.

“Methanol pricing remained strong and stable in the first quarter, underpinned by tight methanol industry supply and demand fundamentals in an environment of high global energy prices. This resulted in a continuation of the very favourable business environment that Methanex enjoyed in 2004.”

The latest average realised price of US$262 per tonne compared with US$251 per tonne for the previous quarter and US$223 for the first quarter of 2004.

Aitken said the world methanol market remained tight, with global inventories still below normal levels.

“Numerous planned and unplanned outages in the industry to date in 2005 resulted in global inventories remaining below historic norms. Looking ahead, we remain optimistic that tight market conditions and above average methanol pricing will continue in 2005.”

Methanex was commissioning its 840,000 tonne per year Chile IV plant that would increase total low-cost production capability to 5.8 million tonnes per year.