‎SABIC can handle market’s economic cycle: CEO

‎SABIC can handle market’s economic cycle: CEO

Saudi Basic Industries Corp. (SABIC) is used to dealing with the economic cycle in the petrochemical market and its fluctuations, CEO Abdulrahman Al-Fageeh said, while also pointing to the company’s experience with market conditions.

SABIC's sales reach includes more than 100 countries, Al-Fageeh said in response to a question by Argaam during the press conference on Q1 2023 financial results.

He stressed that the petrochemicals giant pays close attention to the security and safety of the society and the people. In addition, the focus also remains on the reliability of plants and delivery of products to all customers around the world.

Commenting on the financial results, Al-Fageeh said that the year-on-year (YoY) decrease in sales to SAR 40 billion in Q1 2023, was due to the volume of sales of polymers and agri-nutrients as well as the average prices of SABIC products.

The CEO added that the company's cost of sales decreased by 9% YoY in Q1 2023.

Sequentially, Q1 2023 profit grew due to improved profit margins, mainly driven by a decrease in operating expenses.

He pointed out that SABIC continues to control capital expenditures and will allocate capital for profitable investments.

Demand for the sector’s products witnessed improvement but lower than the company’s expectations, the