KUALA LUMPUR: Petronas Chemicals Group Bhd's (PetChem) net profit doubled to RM964 million in the second quarter ended June 30, 2017 from RM462 million a year ago.
It attributed this to the commencement of its commercial operations at the Sabah ammonia and urea (Samur) plant in May.
Group revenue rose 24 per cent to RM3.96 billion, mainly thanks to higher sales volumes, prices and a stronger US dollar.
For the six months period, PetChem's net profit also doubled to RM2.26 billion from RM1.05 billion a year ago on higher volumes and improving product spreads.
Its revenue rose 36 per cent to RM8.65 billion from RM6.35 billion in the previous year's corresponding period.
PetChem said the average product prices in its fertiliser and methanol segment increased by five per cent, because of the higher volumes from Samur.
“While this continued to be a challenging period for the industry, we have delivered resilient performance to sustain healthy margins and returns, with earnings driven by the strong momentum of our growth projects,” said PetChem managing director and chief executive officer Datuk Sazali Hamzah in a statement today.
“Samur is a significant milestone for us and we are confident that it will continue to positively impact our bottom-line,” he added.
He noted that operational and commercial excellence remain PCG’s core priority to ensure long-term business sustainability.
“More importantly, the business delivered resilient EBITDA with 40 per cent margin and sound improvements in cost efficiency. With this good performance, we are well-positioned operationally and financially to pursue its growth agenda,” he added.
PetChem remains cautiously optimistic of the outlook for the second half of the year given the volatile crude oil prices and the oversupply situation in the petrochemical market.
In the next quarter, Sazali said PetChem will undertake heavy statutory turnaround activities at several of its plants as planned, coinciding with bearish market conditions.