JEDDAH: Saudi Arabia's Yanbu National Petrochemical Co. reported a doubling of its third-quarter net profit on Tuesday, attributing the rise to increased production and sales as well as higher prices for its products.

Yansab made SR864.8 million ($230.6 million) in the three-month period to Sept. 30, it said in a bourse filing, up from SR435.7 million during the same timeframe in 2012.

The profit was ahead of the average forecast of eight analysts polled by Reuters, who expected the petrochemicals firm to make SR749.6 million in the period.

The company is a unit of Saudi Basic Industries Corp., one of the world's largest petrochemical companies. SABIC has yet to report its third-quarter earnings.