IRPC’s third-quarter net profits rise 18%

09 November 2007 09:49  [Source: ICIS news]

BANGKOK (ICIS news)--The operator of southeast Asia’s largest integrated petrochemical complex IRPC said on Friday its third-quarter net profits jumped 18% year on year to baht Bt3.5bn ($111.23m).

 

Sales revenues rose 2% year on year in the third quarter to Bt54.5bn, while cost of sales increased 3% to Bt1.3bn due to higher volume, the company said.

 

Meanwhile, for the first nine months of the year, the Thai-based company's net profits climbed 16% from last year to Bt11.5bn.

 

Analysts in Bangkok had expected the company to earn Bt13.3bn for the whole year and it looked in line to meet that target.

 

Interest expenses fell 55% year on year in the third quarter to Bt300m as the company had used long-term bonds and debt restructuring to further reduce its heavy debt burden, it said.

 

Average refining margins in the final six months of the year would be similar to the $11-$12 per barrel in the first half of the year, the company said, which included major petrochemical products naphtha, ethylene, propylene, high-density polyethylene (HDPE) and polypropylene (PP).

 

IRPC's refinery has a capacity of 190,000 bbl/day, up from about 170,000 bbl/day last year. The company was spending about Bt1.3bn to expand its total refining capacity to 250,000 bbl/day by 2009-10, it said.

 

It also has an olefins capacity of 728,000 tonnes/year and an aromatics capacity of about 367,000 tonnes/year.

 

IRPC, formerly known as Thai Petrochemical Industry, or TPI, was the largest corporate bankruptcy in Thailand's 1997 financial crisis.

 

($1 = Bt31.45)

By: Daniel Ten Kate
+65 6780 4359

< previous article(ICIS Chemical Business podcast November 2, 2009)

For the latest chemical news, data and analysis that directly impacts your business sign up for a free trial to ICIS news - the breaking online news service for the global chemical industry.

Get the facts and analysis behind the headlines from our market leading weekly magazine: sign up to a free trial to ICIS Chemical Business.

Printer Friendly