Kuwait petrochemical giants profit slips 11 percent

Kuwaits Equate Petrochemical Co on Sunday reported an 11.2 percent drop in 2008 net profit mainly because of a slide in the price of chemical products. The company, a joint-venture with US Dow Chemical Co, posted a net profit of 683 million dollars in 2008 compared with 769 million dollars in the previous year, Chairman Yusef al-Atiqi said in a statement.
The reduced profit came despite Equates sales last year hitting 1.2 billion dollars, a five percent rise from 2007, CEO Hamad al-Terkait said. Equate is a two-billion-dollar joint venture between Dow Chemical and state-owned Petrochemical Industries Co (PIC), with 42.5 percent each.