Industries Qatar reports record revenue

Industries Qatar (IQ) has reported record revenue of QR16.5 billion in 2011 at the company\'s Ninth Annual General Assembly meeting held here. The Qatari company\'s board of directors said all key segments recorded positive growth in 2011 compared to the performance in 2010. The record revenue was spurred by the 28.4% increase in prices across its product line, IQ said late Tuesday night. In a report presented, the company said, petrochemical revenue for the year concerned was QR6.5 billion; the positive year-on-year variance of QR 1.8 billion, or 38.6%, and was primarily due to low production volumes recorded last year due to extended methanol and MTBE plant shut-downs, the addition in 2011 of Qatofin\'s LLDPE products and an average 12.9% price increase across all products. The fertiliser segment closed the year (2011) with revenue of QR 4.3 billion, up QR 1.4 billion, or 47.3%, on the same period in 2010. \"Almost all of this annual increase can be attributed to an ammonia and urea price rally that began in the last quarter of 2010 and has now resulted in the products\' prices rising by over 70%. Ammonia and urea production volumes and utilisation rates were consistent with 2010 levels, as the plants continued to operate at full capacity and were affected by a similar number of shut-down days as last year,\" the report said. Full-year revenue from steel for the year was QR5.8 billion, which shows an increase of QR1bn, or 21.9% on 2010. Key product prices grew during this period by 18%, giving the segment a QR 1.1billion price variance. Key production levels also grew during the year, but by a modest 4.5 percentage points, to 100% utilisation, IQ said.