SET-listed Indorama Ventures Plc, a major international maker of intermediate petrochemicals, posted a net profit of 4.1 billion baht in the first quarter, says president and chief executive Aloke Lohia.
The company managed a strong profit despite a shutdown of its ethylene oxide/ethylene glycol site in the US for almost three months for unplanned maintenance. The site resumed production on April 15.
Indorama booked a 13% rise in core earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation to 22.1 billion baht in the year ending March 31, while its core profit grew 43% to 6.6 billion baht.
In the first quarter, the company had a non-cash inventory devaluation of 500 million baht as a result of a rapid fall in prices that was offset by net extraordinary income of 3.3 billion baht, primarily from a gain on its acquisition of BP's Alabama site.
Indorama acquired a 100% stake in BP Amoco Chemical Co, which manufactures integrated paraxylene and purified terephthalic acid (PTA). It is also the world's only commercial plant manufacturing naphthalene dicorbxylate, a speciality chemical used in polymers and films for applications such as smartphone screens.
It was the eighth company Indorama acquired over the past 12 months and has a capacity of 1.8 million tonnes a year of paraxylene and PTA.
"I am very pleased to see that we were able to outperform expectations even though a key plant in Texas was closed for most of the quarter," Mr Lohia said.
"This shows that as we grow in strategic markets and become more diversified both globally and in terms of our portfolio, we become more accretive."