CEM Corporation increases revenues

05-06-2005: CEM Corporation, a leading provider of microwave laboratory instrumentation, announced results for its second fiscal quarter ending March 31, 2005. Revenue for the quarter was $13.4 million, compared to $12.2 million the previous year, a 10% increase. For the six-month period ending March 31, 2005, revenues were $26.4 million a 13% increase from the same time period last year.

CEM's Life Science Division led the Company's growth for the first six months of this year with a 34% increase in revenue over the same time period a year ago. Operating income for the same six-month period was $3.9 million a 7% increase compared to last year.

"We are very pleased with the results of our second fiscal quarter," said Michael J. Collins, president and CEO of CEM Corporation. "In the first half of our fiscal year, we've seen strong growth in US Life Science sales due to our expanding market share and the continuing acceptance of microwave synthesis technology by the scientific community. CEM's extremely versatile, modular line of products for the Life Science industry coupled with the solid performance of our Analytical and Process Control Divisions are combining to give us what currently looks to be another record year."

"Chemists working with our new microwave synthesis products are finding they are able to easily perform chemistries that have been difficult or impossible to do under conventional conditions," continued Collins. "Groundbreaking work on the scale-up of microwave synthesis reactions to kilogram quantities was recently presented at the 3rd International Microwaves in Chemistry Conference and we expect additional papers on new chemistries performed in our microwave synthesis systems to be published in the coming year."

CEM's Analytical Division continued to see growth with sales increasing 15% for the six months ended March 31, 2005. The MARSXpress(TM) technology with its expanded capabilities is responsible for much of that increase.

"We have continued to strengthen our R&D efforts, resulting in a substantial new product pipeline for the coming year that addresses the needs of chemists in the Life Science industry in particular. To that end, we have hired additional chemists and engineers over the last six months and plan to continue expanding our capabilities in those areas," concluded Collins.