Unipar doubles net profit to US$75mn in 2004

Brazilian petrochemical group Unipar posted net profits of 204mn reais (US$75mn) in 2004, up from 101mn reais in 2003, the company said in a statement Thursday. The group's gross revenue rose to 3.1bn reais in 2004 from 2.1bn reais a year earlier. Operating profits were 309mn reais in 2004, up from 161mn reais in 2003 while its Ebitda rose to 386mn reais in 2004, from 240mn reais the previous year, the company said. The group's sales volumes rose 5% while prices of petrochemicals climbed significantly amid international and domestic economic recovery, the company said in the statement. The higher sales led to a 4 percentage-point increase, to 86%, in the usage of the group's installed capacity. Unipar is one of the country's leading petrochemical groups with stakes in PQU, Carboclore, Rio Polímeros, Petrofelx, Polibutenos and other chemical trading and transport logsitcis companies. Unipar invested 243mn reais in 2004, including in the Rio Polímeros petrochemical complex project, which should start operations in May. Unipar has a 33% stake in the project. In 2005, Unipar plans to invest 497mn reais, including continued investments in Rio Polímeros, the start of a US$175mn capacity expansion program at PQU and the US$160mn expansion at Polietilenos, the latter two both expected to wrap up in 2007, the company said.