Riyadh – Mubasher: Saudi Basic Industries Corporation’s (SABIC) main priorities in 2021 include being focused on delivering its transformation and strategy, maintaining financial strength, and improving operational performance, Chairman and CEO Yousef Abdullah Al Benyan said.

This is in addition to meeting the environmental, social, and corporate governance commitments, and demonstrating excellence in customer focus and innovation, Al Benyan added.

“SABIC’s financial performance has seen a positive start to 2021. The first quarter [Q1] saw rising oil prices and a tight supply and demand balance, further impacted by heavy turnarounds and storm Uri in the US,” Al Benyan noted.

He added, “These elements, combined with growing demand as the global economy continues to recover, resulted in higher prices and margins for most of our products.”

SABIC projected economic activity to continue improving as witnessed during Q1-21. The company estimated the global gross domestic product (GDP) growth rate to increase between 5% and 5.5% this year, according to a disclosure to Tadawul on Thursday.

The level of margins witnessed in Q1-21 is expected to continue during the second quarter (Q2) of 2021, backed by healthy oil prices and relatively tight supply and demand balances in SABIC’s primary products.

SABIC has disclosed its unaudited financial statements for Q1-21, which showed a net profit of SAR 4.86 billion against a net loss of SAR 1.05 billion in Q1-20.

Revenues grew 24% year-on-year (YoY) to SAR 37.53 billion in Q1-21 from SAR 30.19 billion.