Shin-Etsu, one of Japan's biggest makers of polyvinyl chloride , reported profits down 26.1 per cent from Y17. 6bn to Y13bn. Sales increased 0. 2 per cent from Y275bn to Y276bn. Net profits fell 26. 6 per cent to Y7.08bn, or Y21.85 per share.
The group maintained the final dividend at Y3.75, making the full-year pay out Y7.5 per share. Shin-Etsu forecast pre-tax profits for the current year of Y15.5bn on sales of Y277bn.
The outlook for the petrochemicals industry remains blsak. The imbalance between supply and demand for ethylene, the basic building block of petrochemicals ,is about 2.8m tonnes of ethylene and is set to deteriorate further this year.
A massive 700,000-tonne-a-year ethylene complex owned by Maruzen ,Mitsui Petrochemical and Sumitomo Chemical comes on stream later this year and Mitsubishi Petrochemical is also commissioning a new 300,000-tonne-a -year plant this year