Reduced operating, administrative and sales, and financial costs helped Chile’s Cemento Polpaico post a 4.77-peso (US$7.48m) consolidated net profit in the first quarter, up 28 per cent from 1Q03.  For the period, operating profits grew 15.5 per cent  to 6.74bn pesos and revenues dropped 12.5 per cent to 29.3bn pesos, Polpaico said in a statement to the country’s securities regulator (SVS).  Last month, company general manager Eduardo Kretschmer said during Polpaico’s annual shareholders’ meeting that US$15m will be invested this year. However, this year’s forecast 2-3 per cent cement sales increase will prevent companies from investing larger sums. The investment will go towards the construction of a co-processing plant fired by alternative fuels, the purchase of cement mixer trucks and projects aimed at rationalizing costs.