Saudi Arabian Fertilizer Co (Safco) said on Monday that its third-quarter net profit fell 36 per cent on lower sale prices, in line with analysts' average forecasts.

The company, a unit of Saudi Basic Industries Corp (Sabic) , one of the world's biggest petrochemical companies, said it made a quarterly net profit of 734 million riyals ($196 million), compared with a profit of 1.1 billion riyals for the year-ago quarter.

Ten analysts forecast the company - which produces ammonia and urea - would make a quarterly net profit of 735 million riyals, on average, in a Reuters poll.

Safco attributed the fall in a bourse statement to a decrease in prices of company products.

This comes in the wake of increasing concerns by global players about the continued fall of urea prices.

In April, Yara International,the world's largest nitrogen-based fertiliser maker, warned after reporting lower than expected first-quarter earnings that urea prices could fall if China continued to increase output.

Gulf fertilizer and petchem firm, Industries Qatar , is expected to publish third quarter results later on Monday.  - Reuters