Riyadh - Mubasher: Saudi International Petrochemical (Sipchem) reported a jump in net profits by 101.2% in the fourth quarter of 2016 to SAR 52.3 million ($13.95 million) compared to SAR 26 million ($6.93 million) in the same quarter in 2015.

According to the company’s statement to the Saudi Stock Exchange (Tadawul) on Wednesday, the rise is profits is due to the increase in overall production and products sales volumes by 27%, as well as the growth in most of products prices especially methanol and EVA.

The company also explained that achieving higher profits was due to the successful implementation of various efficiency enhancement and cost saving initiatives in 2016 that focused on manpower reduction, lower logistics and distribution costs, and new markets reach.

As for the annual results, the company’s profits declined by 75.5% to SAR 70 million in 2016 compared to SAR 288.2 million in the year before.