JEDDAH: Advanced Petrochemical Company has announced that its Propylene plant will be shut down for essential assessment for critical reliability improvements for a maximum period of 10 days starting from February 22, 2019.

However, the Polypropylene plant will continue operating at lower throughput utilizing inventories available in the tank, as well as outsourced Propylene.

The financial impact depending on the expected prices of Polypropylene and feedstock will be reflected in the financial results of the first quarter of 2019.

Advanced Petrochemical Company manufactures and sells polypropylene in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, rest of the Middle East, and North Africa region.

Advanced Petrochemical Company announced the annual consolidated financial results for the year ended December 31, 2018.

Net profit for the year 2018 is increased by 13.60 percent compared to prior year mainly due to increase in sales revenue by 15.25 percent resulting from increase in Polypropylene prices by 13.27 percent and increase in sales quantities by 1.75 percent; increase in share of profit on investment in SK Advanced Co. Ltd. (associated company in South Korea) by 40.48 percent.

The above increase in net income is despite the increase in feedstock costs by 23.65 percent as a result of increase in Propane and Outsourced Propylene prices by 18.82 percent and 18.83 percent respectively and comparatively higher consumption of Outsourced Propylene by 22.06 percent.