JEDDAH, 14 October 2003 — The Saudi Arabian Fertilizer Company (SAFCO) yesterday reported a net profit of SR112.5 million for the third quarter of 2003 against SR41.4 million for the same period last year.
Profits earned in the year to date totaled SR247.7 million against SR72.9 million over the same period in 2002, marking an increase of 239 percent.
Mohamed Al-Mady, vice chairman and CEO of SABIC and chairman of the board of SAFCO, attributed the profit increase to the rise in prices for most of SAFCO’s products. “The third quarter profits for 2003 were 125 percent higher than the previous quarter. This was due to a number of factors, including the completion of routine maintenance work; a production increase of 31 percent and sales increase of 33 percent compared with the previous three months.
“The construction work on the SAFCO 4 expansion project has started as planned, and commercial production is scheduled to start in early 2006,” he said, adding that SAFCO had been awarded the ISO 14001 environmental management standard for its plants in Dammam and Jubail.
