Methanol Chemicals Company (Chemanol) said its Q1 2013 net profit decreased compared to Q4 2012 mainly due to a decline in sales caused by delayed sales contracts, in addition to a slight decrease in production capacity for some plants where catalysts almost expired.

Announcing its interim financial results for the three-month period ended March 31, 2013, Chemanol said its net profit during the first quarter amounted to SR 14.07 million as compared to SR 25.25 million for the same period of last year.

This is a decrease of 44 percent, and SR 15.19 million in the previous quarter, which is a decrease of 7 percent.

Gross profit during the first quarter amounted to SR 51.38 million as compared to SR 61.94 million for the same period of last year, which is a decrease of 17 percent.

Total operating profit during the first quarter amounted to SR 27.81 million as compared to SR 36.96 million for the same period of last year, which is a decrease of 25 percent.

Earnings per share in the three months amounted to SR 0.12 as compared to SR 0.21 for the same period of the last year.

Net profit in Q1 compared to same period in 2012 decreased mainly due to a decrease in sales (SR 20 million compared to Q1/2012) caused by delayed sales contracts based on customers’ requests, in addition to a slight decrease in production capacity for some plants where catalysts almost expired.

These catalysts are planned to be replaced during the routine maintenance scheduled this year.

The company will announce its details later.

“Net profit also decreased by losses incurred from the limited fire incident in the SNF plant totaling around SR 2.9 million as per our announcement released on Tadawul website on April 9, 2013,” the company added.