LONDON (Thomson Financial) - HaiKe Chemical Group Ltd. said the ongoing rise
in oil prices continued to put pressure on the company as it reported a dip in
first-quarter pretax profit as total revenues nearly doubled in the period.
The China-based petrochemicals company said the incremental selling prices
of its petrochemical products compared with the lower material costs in the
petrochemical sector weighed on the company's gross margin profit in the period
with sales and distribution expenses up 117 percent to $1.3 million.
For the quarter to end-March, the company posted pretax profit of $1.4
million from $3.9 million in the same quarter last year with total revenues up
to $141.7 million from $73.9 million.
It said market conditions for the petrochemical sector remain tough, adding
its focus going forward will be on the development of its speciality chemical
facilities and improving the flexibility and scale of its petrochemical
activities.
It added it is confident of achieving further growth in both revenues and
gross profits for the remainder of 2008 despite the high oil price.
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