Kuwait's Equate Petrochemicals Co on Saturday reported a 73-percent increase in net profits last year due to a global rise in the prices of chemicals products. Equate, a joint venture with the US firm Dow Chemical, posted a net profit of $880 million (648 million euros) in 2010 on the back of record sales, compared to $510 million in the previous year, the company said in a statement.
In 2009, Equate net profit dropped 25.3 percent from the previous year's $683 million. "These profits were realised due to high efficiency in operating all production units, as well as the global rise in prices of petrochemical products," its president and CEO Hamad al-Terkait said.
The value of Equate's sales has climbed to just above $2 billion, a record in the company's history, due to operating near full capacity and a healthy export book, said Terkait. Equate is a multi-billion-dollar joint venture between Dow Chemical and Kuwait state-owned Petrochemical Industries Co (PIC), each of which holds 42.5 percent.
The private firms Boubyan Petrochemical Company and Al-Qurain Petrochemicals hold nine percent and six percent respectively. Equate, which began operations in 1997, has since expanded massively. It has a total production capacity of 5.2 million metric tonnes per year mainly of polyethylene, ethylene glycol and styrene, in addition to other derivative products.