KUALA LUMPUR - Sime Darby Plantation reported a third-quarter net profit on Monday compared to a year-earlier loss, and said it expects palm oil demand to increase further next year.

The results were helped by higher crude palm oil (CPO) and palm kernel prices, as well as improved contribution from its downstream operations that offset lower output.

For the July-September period, Sime posted a net profit of 190 million ringgit ($46.45 million), compared to a 243 million ringgit loss a year earlier.

Revenue rose 13% to 3.18 billion ringgit.

"Despite the challenges posed by the pandemic on global markets, CPO prices continue to be supported in the second half of the year," Group Managing Director Mohamad Helmy Othman Basha said in a bourse filing. 

"Palm oil demand has improved and is expected to grow further in 2021," he added.

The world's largest crude palm oil producer by land size said its financial performance for the fiscal year ending Dec. 31 is expected to be better than last year.

($1 = 4.0900 ringgit)

(Reporting by Mei Mei Chu; Editing by Shounak Dasgupta) ((meifong.chu@thomsonreuters.com; +6-139-492-9424; @meixchu on Twitter))