By: Mohamed Idris
Riyadh - Mubasher: The executive vice president for corporate finance in Saudi Basic Industries Corp (SABIC) said on Tuesday that the company’s sales will remain strong due to its high competiveness, and that it can deliver the product at any time.
Mosaed Al-Ohali said in his remarks to Mubasher on the sidelines of the Euromoney Saudi Arabia conference in Riyadh that oil prices and profit margins remain hard to predict, adding that the rise in prices during the first quarter of 2017 was the main drive for profit growth.
He noted that prices increased by 15% in Q1-17 compared to the same quarter last year.
Al-Ohali noted another positive indicator is the cost reduction, non-fixed costs such as feedstock prices, and fixed costs that include labour and maintenance, which he said represents the smallest part in total costs, with a decrease of between 10% and 15% in two years.
China and Asia dominate around two thirds of SABIC’s tota sales, according to Al-Ohali, with the remaining distributed over the Middle East and Europe.
