Petrochemicals and metals company Industries Qatar (IQ) posted a 38 percent drop in first-quarter net profit on Sunday, trailing analysts' forecasts.

The Gulf's second-largest chemical producer by market value, after Saudi Basic Industries Co (Sabic), reported profit of 1.59 billion riyals ($437 million) for the first three months of 2014, compared to 2.55 billion riyals a year earlier.

Analysts polled by Reuters had on average expected the company to post a quarterly profit of 1.77 billion riyals.

Revenue for the quarter was 1.32 billion riyals against 1.67 billion riyals in the prior-year period, it said in a statement.

The company did not specify why revenue and profits had dropped, but IQ had said in January that it planned several maintenance shutdowns of its petrochemical and steel product plants for a total of 200 days in the first three months of 2014, compared to 59 days of closures in the same period of 2013.

Earlier this month, Sabic reported a 1.8 percent fall in its first-quarter earnings, blaming lower prices for some of its petrochemical products.  - Reuters