KARACHI, July 30: Engro Chemical Pakistan Limited posted net profit for first half 2004 at Rs483 million, which compared with Rs534 million recorded for the same period last year.

Directors who approved the accounts at their meeting earlier this week said that the decline in earnings was attributable mainly to lost urea production. The company's sale of urea during first half of 2004 was 372,000 tons, representing increase of 5 per cent over last year.

"The volume increase trailed industry growth rate due to product limitation and restricted Engro market share to 19 per cent versus 20pc in 2003," the company stated and noted that Engro urea production during the period was 380,000 tons compared to 482,000 tons achieved in the same period last year, which was an all time record without any plant shutdown.

"The lower production in 2004 is attributable to plant outage on account of planned annual maintenance turnaround and subsequent operating issues that have been effectively resolved," directors said.

Engro noted that the Pakistan fertilizer market demand for urea during the first half of 2004 was 1.96m tons, an increase of 8 per cent over the same period last year. The indigenous production of 2.06m tons was down 4 per cent over the first half of 2003.

The product was said to have been in ample supply throughout the period and domestic price of urea on average was 40pc or Rs288 per 50 kg bag below the international price.