MOSCOW (MRC) -- LyondellBasell's second quarter profits fell nearly 40% from the previous year as the petrochemical industry contends with lower prices, plentiful supplies and tariffs, as per the company's press release.
Earnings were at USD1 bln in Q2, down from nearly USD1.7 bln during the same period in 2018. Second quarter revenues fell 12% to about USD9 bln from USD10.2 bln a year earlier.
Meanwhile, the company's EBITDA was USD1.6 billion in the second quarter, an increase of 11% over the first quarter 2019.
The company increased our quarterly dividend to USD1.05 per share, the eleventh increase over the past 8 years. The issued dividends totaled USD388 million.
As MRC wrote previously, in August 2016, LyondellBasell made the final investment decision to build a high density polyethylene (HDPE) plant on the US Gulf Coast. The plant will have an annual capacity of 1.1 billion pounds (500,000 metric tons) and will be the first commercial plant to employ LyondellBasell's new proprietary Hyperzone PE technology. The start-up of the new plant is scheduled for 2019.
LyondellBasell is one of the largest plastics, chemicals and refining companies in the world. Driven by its employees around the globe, LyondellBasell produces materials and products that are key to advancing solutions to modern challenges like enhancing food safety through lightweight and flexible packaging, protecting the purity of water supplies through stronger and more versatile pipes, improving the safety, comfort and fuel efficiency of many of the cars and trucks on the road, and ensuring the safe and effective functionality in electronics and appliances. LyondellBasell sells products into more than 100 countries and is the world's largest producer of polymer compounds and the largest licensor of polyolefin technologies.
MRC