Haldia Petro Q3 Ebdit Dips 62% To Rs 13 Crore

Hit by poor demand for polymer products post 9/11, Haldia Petrochemicals Ltd has recorded a 19.78 per cent fall in gross sales turnover to in the third quarter ending December 31, 2001.

The company's gross sales turnover went down to Rs 551 crore during October-December compared with Rs 687 crore during June-September. However, the company retained its second position in terms of polymer market share in the country ahead of IPCL, GAIL and NOCIL.

Sales volume, too, dipped by 10 per cent to 171,000 tonne during the quarter compared with 190,000 tonne in second quarter.

For the nine month period, HPL posted gross sales turnover of Rs 1873 crore with total sales volume of 300,000 tonne. The company commenced commercial production in August, 2001.

In the third quarter, the company posted an EBDIT (earnings before depreciation, interest and tax) of only Rs 13 crore compared with Rs 34 crore in the second quarter, a drop of 61.76 per cent.

Richard B Saldanha, managing director of Haldia Petrochemicals, said, "Lower capacity-utilisation in December, because of shut down of the plant between December 10-14, resulted in lower EBDIT. Moreover, the polymer demand went down badly after 9/11 attacks in domestic and international markets. However, the demand picked up during December and we expect the last quarter to be the best ever for the company."

In fact, third quarter would have been worse for the company. But higher sales in December helped improve the figures. As fixed cost remained the same, lower capacity-utilisation of only 45 per cent affected EBDIT for the entire quarter.

A comparison of polymer stock of the company and that of industry shows that the company fared better. In fact, for the whole quarter, Haldia's inventory was below the industry average. In October, when average polymer stock shot up after 9/11 attacks to 52 days of sales, it was only 42 days for Haldia, data provided by the company indicated.

Likewise, in November, industry's inventory was 53 days of sales compared with 37 days of Haldia and in December, the industry's inventory was 39 days compared with 12 days for Haldia. In value terms, the polymer stock of the company was only worth Rs 51 crore compared with Rs 143 crore and Rs 133 crore in November and December, respectively.

Haldia has stepped up exports to China and Bangladesh. The company has exported polymers worth Rs 133.18 crore to China in December.