Industries Qatar, second-largest chemical maker in the Gulf after SABIC by market value, posted its fifth consecutive record quarterly net profit which doubled to about 2.68 billion riyals (US$736.7 mln) from 1.15 billion a year ago. Owing to high oil prices, the petrochem companies have fared well above analyst's forecasts keeping in sync with SABIC that also showed a record net profit growth in Q2.
Most of the chemical producers in other nations depend on naphtha, which in turn is linked to oil prices which have dropped from US$147/barrel from July to around US$115/barrel in August which are considerably higher than US$65/barrel for the same period in previous year. Besides, Gulf rivals like government owned SABIC benefit from the relatively low prices for ethane gas.
11-Aug-08 
