November 30 (SeeNews) - Bulgarian medical consumables producer Etropal [BUL:ETR] said it sharply reduced its consolidated net loss in the first nine months of 2022 - to 632,000 levs ($333,058/323,136 euro) from 2.25 million levs in the same period of last year.
Etropal's total operating revenue fell to 4.7 million levs in January-September from some 6.5 million levs in the comparable period of 2021, the company said in an interim financial statement on Tuesday.
The decline in sales is mostly due to the diminishing number of hospitalised dialysis patients both at home and abroad, a trend which the company expects to continue in future accounting periods.
Expenses decreased to some 5.4 million levs in the reporting period from 8.7 million levs a year earlier, as the company reduced its costs for materials and personnel despite a significant increase in the prices of materials since last year.
Exports were affected by strong global competition as well as longer times for renewed approval of goods imported in Russia due to the changes in that country's regulatory framework.
Etropal is specialised in the production of consumables for hemodialysis.
Shares in Etropal closed flat at 6.00 levs on the Bulgarian Stock Exchange on Tuesday.
(1 euro = 1.95583 levs)