SAFCO SR 112.5M (US$ 30M) profit for Q3 2003
Posted: 13 October 2003
SAFCO, the Saudi Arabian Fertilizer Company, today reported Q3
net profits of SR 112.5m (US$ 30m), up from SR 41.4m (US$ 11m) for
the same period in 2002.
Profits earned in the year to date totaled SR 247.7m (US$ 66m)
against SR 72.9m (US$ 19.4m) in the same period last year –
an increase of 239 per cent.
Mohamed Al-Mady, Vice Chairman and CEO of SABIC and Chairman of
the Board of SAFCO, attributed this rise in profits to the increase
in prices for most of SAFCO’s products.
Al-Mady added that the third quarter profits for 2003 were 125 per
cent 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 per cent, and sales increase of 33 per
cent compared with the previous three months.
He commented that construction work on the SAFCO 4 expansion project
had started as planned, and that commercial production was scheduled
to start in early 2006.
Finally, Al-Mady noted that SAFCO had been awarded the ISO 14001
Environmental Management Standard for its plants in Dammam and Jubail.
The Middle East’s largest petrochemicals company, SABIC,
is based in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
It was founded in 1976, when the Saudi Arabian Government decided
to use hydrocarbon gases released in the production of oil as raw
material for the production of chemicals, polymers and fertilizers.
The Saudi Arabian Government owns 70 per cent of SABIC shares, with
the remaining 30 per cent held by private investors in Saudi Arabia
and other countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC).
SABIC’s business activities have been restructured and a new
management model became effective on 1 September 2002. There are
now six Strategic Business Units (SBUs): Basic Chemicals; Intermediates;
Polyolefins; PVC & Polyester; Fertilizers and Metals. Supporting
all these functions is a corporate core consisting Human Resources;
Corporate Finance; Corporate Control and Research & Technology.
A Shared Services Organization will become operational in 2003.
SABIC has two large industrial sites in Saudi Arabia – Al-Jubail
and Yanbu – with sixteen world-scale production complexes.
Some of these production complexes are operated with multi-national
partners such as Exxon Mobil, Shell, Fortum, Ecofuel/ENI and Mitsubishi
Chemicals. In addition, SABIC has interests in three production
complexes in Bahrain. Over the last 16 years, SABIC’s overall
production capacity has increased considerably. In 2002 it amounted
to 40.6 million metric tons.
SABIC EuroPetrochemicals owns two petrochemical production sites
in Geleen (Netherlands) and Gelsenkirchen (Germany) for the production,
marketing and sales of polypropylenes, polyethylenes and hydrocarbons.
They annually sell about 2.6 million tonnes of polymers, mainly
in Europe. About 2,300 people are employed at SABIC EuroPetrochemicals.
SABIC employs over 16,000 people worldwide, most of whom are based
in Saudi Arabia. In 2002 SABIC posted sales of approximately SR34bn
(US$9.06bn) and a net profit of approximately SR2.84bn (US$758.4m)
Posted by Richard Price,
Editor Pipeline Magazine
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