Polyta loses in 4th quarter

Polyta loses in 4th quarter

JAKARTA (JP): The publicly listed PT Tri Polyta Indonesia Tbk,
predicts to see a loss of between 10 U.S. cents and 14 U.S. cents
per American Depository Share in the fourth quarter of 1996.

The company announced that the loss was mainly due to a
narrower Delta P and sales volume of 88,912 metric tons of
polypropylene. Delta P is the margin price between polypropylene
and propylene.

The company said that polypropylene deliveries in Indonesia
would be curtailed for approximately two weeks due to a factory
closing, limits imposed on truck traffic and the Moslem's Idul
Fitri holidays.

As Chinese new year falls in the same week, polypropylene
buying throughout Asia will also be curtailed.

The company said it achieved an average Delta P of $257 per
metric ton for the fourth quarter of 1996 because Southeast Asia
propylene feedstock prices continued to increase while
polypropylene prices did not.

While the market pressure on the company's Delta P, which
started in the third quarter, continued to stay strong in the
fourth quarter, the rising of naphtha price also attributed the
higher price of propylene.

As a result, the increased feedstock demand from regional
polypropylene producers had made propylene price difficult to
ease. (09)