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)