RIYADH, 22 July 2003 — The Saudi Basic Industries Corp. (SABIC) announced yesterday a 224 percent surge in its net profits for the first six months of 2003 on the back of increased sales and a rise in prices. The petrochemicals giant reported net income of $850.7 million up to June 30 this year compared to $262.7 million in the corresponding period of 2002, SABIC said in a statement.
Vice Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Mohammed Al-Mady, while announcing the increase in profits, attributed the surge to a 10 percent increase in sales and to an improvement in the prices of petrochemical products.
“Second quarter prices stabilized, despite a slight weakness in the early part of the quarter, which was caused largely by global uncertainty as well as unsettled market conditions in much of Asia because of market reaction to the SARs outbreak,” he said.
SABIC’s mid-year results also included the profits of its new affiliate SABIC Europe after last year’s acquisition of the petrochemicals operations of Dutch chemicals group DSM in a deal worth two billion dollars, Al-Mady said. SABIC Europe owns two petrochemical production sites in Geleen (The Netherlands) and Gelsenkirchen (Germany).
Its net profits in the second quarter of 2003 reached $478.4 million, up 29 percent on $372.3 million made in the first quarter of the year.
SABIC’s results were immediately reflected on the Saudi stock market, which rose almost two percent after one hour of trading yesterday with SABIC stocks rising the maximum allowed of 10 percent.
Overall production increased 10 percent to 19.6 million tons in the first six months of the year and sales also increased to 15.2 million tons.
