KUALA LUMPUR: A fire broke out at one of Lotte Chemical Titan Holding's plants in Johor, a senior company executive and the local fire department, Nikkei Markets reports today.
The fire, which has since been extinguished, caused “minor” damage to the company's plant in Pasir Gudang, the executive said, declining to be identified as he was not authorised to speak to the media.
A spokesperson with the local Fire Department told Nikkei Markets no injury was reported onsite and authorities are still investigating the cause of the fire.
At the close of Bursa Malaysia today, Lotte Chemical Titan lost 20 sen to RM5.29.
Last month, the group's share price dived as low as RM4.65 after it reported second quarter earnings ended June 2017 had plunged 72 per cent to RM113.62 million from RM404.03 million.
Lotte Chemical Titan said profits fell after it was forced to shut down for several days in April, due to a water disruption. The shutdown resulted in a 75 kilotonne decline in production volume.
Lotte Chemical Titan's share price has since recovered above the RM5.00 mark, partly on expected higher selling prices for its products.
An increase in ethylene prices due to recent refinery shutdowns in the US following Hurricane Harvey is expected to spill over to product prices.
Two months ago, Lotte Chemical Titan raised about RM4 billion from its initial public offering, debuting at RM6.50 a share.
Lotte Chemical Titan, the Malaysian unit of petrochemical giant Lotte Chemical Corp, counts Permodalan Nasional Bhd as one of its major shareholders.
Its listing was the biggest Malaysian public offering since 2012.