Sinopec Shanghai Petrochemical Posts 9-month Loss - Quick Facts

(RTTNews) - Sinopec Shanghai Petrochemical Company Limited (SHI) reported a nine-month pretax loss of RMB 157.69 million, compared to profit of RMB 1.36 billion, a year ago. Loss to equity shareholders was RMB 152.11 million, compared to profit of RMB 1.00 billion, previous year. Loss per share was RMB 0.014, compared to profit of RMB 0.093.

The company recorded an operating loss of RMB 252 million compared to an operating profit of RMB 1.395 billion, prior year. Revenue decreased to RMB 76.72 billion from RMB 86.36 billion, last year.

Wang Zhiqing, Chairman of Shanghai Petrochemical, said, "The price of petrochemical products weakened in the first three quarters of 2014, given the continuous downturn in petrochemical demand in the PRC. This led to a significant year-on-year decline in the prices of the Group's major petrochemical products. In addition, domestic prices of refined oils fell in the PRC as a consequence of the continuous decrease in international crude oil prices since the third quarter. As there is a lag effect from the Company's crude oil procurement to sales of refined oil products, this led to reduced profit for the refinery segment in the short term."

The company expects the situation will not improve significantly in the fourth quarter. The Group said it will continue to consolidate its system optimization and cost reductions.