September 25 (SeeNews) - Romanian chemicals producer Chimcomplex Borzesti SA Onesti [BSE:CHOB] posted a net loss of 27.6 million lei ($6.6 million/ 5.7 million euro) in the first half of 2020, compared to a 0.57 million lei net profit in the like period of 2019, as the Covid-19 pandemic affected its operations, the company said on Friday.
A strong drop in the operating result and lower demand for the company's products impacted the bottom line, Chimcomplex said in its first-half financial statement filed with the Bucharest Stock Exchange (BVB).
The operating result fell to 24 million lei in the first half of 2020 from 60.5 million lei in the same period of 2019 due to a strong decrease in the price of chlorine-sodium products.
"The basic activity of Chimcomplex SA Borzesti was affected by the Covid-19 pandemic, as demand for chemicals both on the internal market and on the external market decreased strongly", the company said.
Turnover fell 25.7% on the year to 524.2 million lei for the January-June period of 2020, as the company could not sell any more oxo-alcohols products and was forced to close the installation due to low demand. In the first half of 2019, the sales of oxo-alcohols products totalled over 90.30 million lei.
Turnover was also impacted by the cancellation of many orders for polyols in the context of the pandemic and the declaration of a state of emergency in the countries that represent big markets for Chimcomplex products.
The company said that major risk factors for its operations this year is the decrease of price for its products on the foreign markets and the currency exchange rate, taking into account that exports represent approximately 68% of its turnover.
Chimcomplex was founded in 1954 as a state-owned chemicals producer and became a joint stock company in 1991. Romanian Commercial Services Group (SCR Group) became the main shareholder of Chimcomplex in 2003.
In December 2018, Chimcomplex took over insolvent chemicals producer Oltchim for approximately 582.3 million lei. Oltchim, which had been in insolvency since 2013, was the only producer of liquid caustic soda in Central Europe and the only producer of chlorine and polyether polyols in Romania.
Chimcomplex shares traded 5.38% lower at 2.46 lei on the alternative segment of the BVB, AeRO, on Friday at 0900 CET.
(1 euro=4.8722 lei)