Demand for ruthenium-based magnetic materials from the data storage market helped Brush Engineered Materials to post a 37 per cent rise in profits in the third quarter.

The rise in demand for ruthenium derives chiefly from its use in new hard drives which employ perpendicular magnetic recording, cnnmoney.com reports.

Brush has benefited from more and more of the companies it supplies adopting new perpendicular technology, prompting its sales of ruthenium-based magnetic materials to hit $115 million.

This represents 70 per cent of the firm's sales growth of $160 million over the quarter.

Dick Hipple, Chief Executive Officer at the engineered metals manufacturer, predicts demand to increase further as use of the perpendicular magnetic recording systems will become more widespread.

He said: "The big story is the ramp to perpendicular magnetic recording. At the beginning of 2007 we were at almost 0 per cent perpendicular recording. By the end of 2007 we'll be at around 50 per cent and by the end of 2008 at nearly 100 per cent." – Platinum today