The Equate Group, a global producer of petrochemicals, today announced a net income after tax of $183 million for Q1 2019, a 57% decrease from $435 million in the same period last year. 

 

The Q1 2019 unaudited earnings report recorded an EBITDA of $294 million, a 49% decrease from $577 million in Q1 2018, and a revenue of $889 million, a 28% decrease from $1,241 million in Q1 2018.  

 

Dr Ramesh Ramachandran, CEO and president of the Equate Group, said: “While downstream demand growth has remained stable, uncertainty of tariffs and volatility in global markets has unsettled our customers. The rapid rise in inventory ahead of the Chinese New Year has taken longer than expected to work out. Nevertheless, inventory at end user customers seems to be at the lowest level we have seen in a long time. 

 

"The bearish sentiment can be overcome when we remove the factors contributing to the uncertainty. Our focus at Equate will remain on being the safe, reliable and low-cost producer to ride out this phase of market uncertainty. The construction of US Gulf Coast plant remains on track to go on line before the end of 2019,” he said.

 

The EQUATE Group is a global producer of petrochemicals and the world’s second largest producer of ethylene glycol (EG). The group owns and operates industrial complexes in Kuwait, North America and Europe that annually produce over 6 million tons of ethylene, EG, polyethylene (PE), polyethylene terephthalate (PET), styrene monomer (SM), paraxylene (PX), heavy aromatics (HA) and benzene (BZ). 

 

The Equate Group includes Equate Petrochemical Company, The Kuwait Olefins Company (TKOC), as well as a number of subsidiaries such as MEGlobal and Equipolymers. -TradeArabia News Service