الكيماويات نماء: الأسعار المتدنية وانخفاض الطلب وراء خسائر الربع الأخير

The CEO of Namaa Chemicals Company, Abdullah Al-Salem, said that the main reasons for the company’s losses in the fourth quarter of 2022 are the continued decline in prices, which it witnessed starting from the third quarter.

Al-Salem added, in an interview with Al-Arabiya, that the average price drop reached 38% of the average prices for the first half of last year.

He noted that raw material prices did not decline at the same pace, while finished products fell sharply in the fourth quarter.

And Al-Salem indicated that the demand was slightly weaker in the second half, by a slight difference of 5%, compared to the first half of 2022.

Regarding the performance of the first quarter of 2023, Al-Salem said, “Prices are still on a low path, although there was a slight improvement in demand that coincided with the stability of some prices.. However, prices declined by about 10% compared to the prices of the previous fourth quarter.”

He revealed that the pace of price decline has calmed down, “but will this situation continue or will prices rise again? This is not clear in the end.”

Al-Salem expected a tangible improvement in the second half of this year, but the indicators are not clear even in the first and second quarters.

He said that the company recorded a decline in financing costs last year as a whole, which supported the results, and this came as a result of the company paying a large part of the commercial loans due by the end of 2022, in addition to low interest rates in the first half of the year.

He revealed that the company obtained a loan of 90 million riyals from two banks, and it was sufficient to finance the working capital, adding: “There may be capital financing in the coming period to finance some of the development projects in which the company operates.”