SET-listed PTT Global Chemical Plc (PTTGC), Thailand's largest petrochemical maker, said third-quarter revenue rose by 6% to 137 billion baht year-on-year even as global polymer prices slipped and raw material costs rose.
"We were able to offset this obstacle by increasing output of downstream petrochemicals," said Duangkamol Settanung, executive vice-president for finance and accounting.
Net profit in the third quarter rose by 18% year-on-year to 12.8 billion baht.
For the third quarter, olefins and derivatives performance fell slightly from the same period last year because of lower polyethylene prices and reduced sales volume of ethylene, an effect stemming from scheduled maintenance of Olefins Plant 1.
For the polymer business, sales volume increased by having new capacity for LLDPE (low linear density polyethylene) since March of 400,000 tonnes per year. Additional depreciation since then harmed the bottom line.
The ethylene oxide segment was hit by increased feedstock costs.
For the aromatics business, operating performance increased significantly from the second quarter, mainly contributing to higher paraxylene spread over condensate and increases in sales volume resulting from a planned maintenance shutdown to improve production efficiency last year.
The petroleum business in the third quarter suffered from a decline in product spread, which was still better than in the second quarter, particularly from fuel oil.
PTTGC revenue for the first nine months rose by 22% to 387 billion baht, while net profit increased by 21% to 36 billion.
Ms Duangkamol said the outlook in 2019 is for the aromatics plants to have a utilisation rate of 87%, lower than this year, due to a shutdown programme for maintenance and fixing Aromatics Maker Unit 1 during May to June 2019.
The trend of polymers for general plastic moulding products or high-density polyethylene will be slightly lower than this year at US$1,311 a tonne, due to new petrochemical capacity in the US expected to go on stream next year.
PTTGC shares closed yesterday on the Stock of Exchange of Thailand at 78.50 baht, up one baht, in trade worth 1.55 billion baht.
