Thailand's PTT Global Chemical posted Tuesday a consolidated net profit of Baht 987 million ($31.4 million) for the second quarter of 2012, down 90% from Baht 10.1 billion in Q1 as petrochemical prices plummeted.
Sales in Q2, however, rose 3% to Baht 140.8 billion.
There were no comparable year-on-year financial figures as PTTGC was formed through the amalgamation of PTT Chemical and PTT Aromatics and Refining, and was registered as a new company on October 19, 2011.
In spite of the higher sales, net profit decreased as the prices of several petrochemical products fell due to "weakening demand for intermediate and downstream derivative products from the economic crisis in Europe and economic slowdown in the US and China," PTTGC said.
For instance, ethylene prices averaged $1,146/mt in Q2, down 9% from $1,251/mt in Q1, while high density polyethylene prices averaged $1,376/mt, down 1% from $1,395/mt in the previous quarter.
For PTTGC's aromatics business, paraxylene prices averaged $1,497/mt in Q2, down 4% from Q1, while benzene averaged $1,107/mt against $1,181/mt in Q1. Monoethylene glycol prices in Q2 stood at $1,149/mt, down 7% from $1,237/mt in Q1.
PTTGC said it is in the process of obtaining a license from the IEAT to start up its expanded 95,000 mt/year MEG capacity.
Its subsidiary, TOC Glycol, had raised its MEG production capacity in 2009 from 300,000 mt/year to 395,000 mt/year. But it could only operate at 85% of capacity in Q2 due to a court ban since September 29, 2009, on five of PTT's new projects in the Map Ta Phut industrial area.
