An aerial view of Qapco’s facilities in Mesaieed. IQ is the holding company of Qafco, Qapco, Qatar Steel and Qafac with a wide range of petrochemical, fertiliser and steel products.
Industries Qatar (IQ) has posted a first quarter net profit of QR951mn, down 40% on the same period last year.
“The drop in the first quarter net profit was a result of a weak product prices following the significant fall in global oil prices,” Industries Qatar said yesterday.
Industries Qatar is the holding company of Qafco, Qapco, Qatar Steel and Qafac with a wide range of petrochemical, fertiliser and steel products.
Industries Qatar was incorporated as a Qatari joint stock company in April 2003.
Despite the drop in the first quarter net profit, IQ’s sales volumes have gone up by more than 20%, a company statement yesterday showed. It said the group “recorded commendable results” across all segments during the quarter despite facing significant challenges due to an unprecedented 50% drop in global oil prices over the preceding 12 months.
The underlying business nevertheless grew, with “like-for-like” production levels improving by almost 80,000 tonnes, over the last nine months, IQ said.
Industries Qatar said, “As a major global producer of internationally traded commodities, the group expected that it will be impacted by this precipitous decline in oil prices, and budgeted accordingly in the current five-year budget and business plan. And, year-to-date, financial results and liquidity levels have been broadly in line with the group’s expectations.”
The company earned revenue of QR1.3bn in the first quarter, down only 0.8% compared to the first quarter of the previous year.
However, on a like-for-like basis, “management reporting revenue” was QR3.8bn, a decrease of 9.4%, compared with the same period in 2014.
This year-on-year reduction in revenue, IQ said was primarily driven by a significant reduction in selling prices across all segments following the oil price decline that began in Q4, 2014.
Sales volumes nevertheless were up compared to last year as IQ benefited from the “comparatively lower number of planned maintenance days” in the current year.
Last year, Industries Qatar had “significantly higher number of planned and unplanned facility maintenance”.
Compared with the fourth quarter of 2014, reported revenue was marginally up 1.3%, while management reporting revenue, assuming proportionate consolidation, was down 20.1%.
The quarter-on-quarter “revenue reduction” was primarily due to a significant reduction in the prices across all segments, IQ said.
