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MOSCOW (MRC) -- Brazilian petrochemical
firm Braskem SA reported on Wednesday a net loss of USD777 million in the first
quarter compared with a profit of USD243 million a year ago, as foreign exchange
oscillations led to higher financial expenses, reported Reuters.
The company said financial
expenses grew to USD1.332 billion in the quarter ended March 31 from USD243
million a year ago, given the depreciation of the Brazilian real and the Mexican
peso against the US dollar.
In April, Braskem revised its capital
expenditure forecast in 2020 to USD721 million from around USD600 million, as
part of its strategy to preserve cash.
Its operating performance measured
by recurring earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization
(EBITDA) declined by 34% compared with the first-quarter of 2019 to USD294
million, excluding extraordinary expenses related to the geological disaster in
Brazil’s Northeastern state of Alagoas.
Braskem’s quarterly net sales
revenue fell 17% to USD2.846 billion, while cost of goods sold declined by 14%
to USD2.581 billion.
The petrochemical company ended March 2020 with a
net debt/EBITDA ratio in US dollars of 5.84 compared with 4.71 at the end of
2019 and 2.09 in March 2019.
As MRC wrote previously,
the chief executive of Brazilian state-run oil firm Petroleo Brasileiro said in
December 2019 he wants to sell the company's stake in petrochemical company
Braskem within 12 months.
Besides, Braskem is no longer pursuing a
petrochemical project, which would have included an ethane cracker, in West
Virginia. And the company is seeking to sell the land that would have housed the
cracker. The project, announced in 2013, had been on Braskem's back burner for
several years.
Ethylene and propylene are feedstocks for producing
polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP).
According to MRC's ScanPlast report,
Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 721,290 tonnes in the first four
month of 2020, up by 4% year on year. Low density polyethylene (LDPE) and linear
low density polyethylene (LLDPE) shipments grew partially because of the
increased capacity utilisation at ZapSibNeftekhim. At the same time, PP
shipments to the Russian market totalled 347,440 tonnes in January-April 2020
(calculated by the formula production minus export plus import). Supply
exclusively of PP random copolymer increased.
Headquartered in Rio de
Janeiro, Petrobras is an integrated energy firm. Petrobras' activities include
exploration, exploitation and production of oil from reservoir wells, shale and
other rocks as well as refining, processing, trade and transport of oil and oil
products, natural gas and other fluid hydrocarbons, in addition to other
energy-related activities. |
