South Korea's largest oil refiner SK Innovation said Friday the operating profit of its petrochemical segment fell 18.4% year on year in the third quarter to Won 249.9 billion ($228 million).
SK Global Chemical, SK Innovation's wholly-owned petrochemical subsidiary, reported revenue of Won 3.08 trillion in the quarter ended September 30, down 14.9% year on year.
Compared with Q2, the segment's operating profit jumped 52.2%, despite revenue dipping 3% over the same period.
"The rise in operating profit [from the previous quarter] was mainly a result of higher demand for aromatic products," the company said in a statement. "A significant improvement in the market conditions will take time, despite signs of an economic pickup in some parts of Asia," it said.
SK Global Chemical sold 2.07 million mt of petrochemical products in Q3, down from 2.31 million mt a year earlier and up from 1.98 million mt in Q2.
Of the total, it sold 77,000 mt of ethylene, down from 82,000 mt a year earlier and from 88,000 mt in Q2, and 344,000 mt of paraxylene, down from 526,000 mt a year earlier and from 368,000 mt in Q2.
The company's 348,000 mt/year No. 2 PX plant at Ulsan has been shut October 4-November 2 for maintenance, while its 410,000 mt/year No. 1 plant at the complex continues to operate. It plans to shut its EPDM plant with a capacity of 20,000 mt/year from November 4-December 2 for maintenance.
Separately, SK Innovation is spending Won 1.6 trillion to build a PX plant with a capacity of 1.3 million mt/year by 2014 at its Incheon complex on South Korea's west coast. The company is also building another PX plant with a capacity of 1 million mt/year at Ulsan in a 50:50 joint venture with Japan's JX Nippon Oil & Energy. It is scheduled to come online in 2014.
