KARACHI, Oct 21: Pakistan PTA Limited reported loss of Rs1,345 million for the nine months to end-September 2003, which was 36 per cent lower than loss of Rs2,101 million for the corresponding period of the previous year.

The company announced the third quarter and nine months results on Tuesday. Top line (sales) growth was 17.5 per cent amounting to Rs12,246 million, up from Rs10,419 million in the nine months period of 2002. For the third quarter, the company posted loss of Rs222 million before tax and before amortisation of deferred expenditure, which was lower than loss of Rs624 million for same quarter 2002.

Chief executive, Waqar A Malik said in a statement that the Asian PTA demand had remained strong throughout the quarter, helped by new polyester capacity start ups in China and high polymer operating rates in the industry. “PTA prices during the quarter improved over Q2 2003, however Paraxylene prices also increased on the back of strengthening of crude oil and unanticipated plant outages at Refineries in Asia,” said the CEO, adding that although the PTA margin over Paraxylene showed significant improvement over Q2, it was still lower than Q3 last year.

The company said that the production and sales were up 33 and 4 per cent, respectively over Q3 last year. Production benefited from postponement of a planned shutdown. Domestic sales ratio during the quarter was 85 per cent, compared with 70pc in the same quarter last year and plant conversion efficiencies were significantly better than last year.

The company could cut down its administration and selling expenses by Rs49 million for the three-quarters under review, but its other income also declined by about the same amount. The redeeming feature was the huge reduction by Rs1,057 million or by 58 per cent in financial charges to Rs772 million, from Rs1,829 million in the three-quarters of last year.