Industries Qatar posts net profit of QR2.3bn in H1 2024

Doha: Industries Qatar ( IQ or the Group ; QE Ticker: IQCD), today reported a net profit of QR 2.3 billion for the six month period ended 30 June 20...

Doha: Industries Qatar (“IQ” or “the Group”; QE Ticker: IQCD), today reported a net profit of QR 2.3 billion for the six-month period ended 30 June 2024, representing an increase of 12% compared to the same period of last year.

The macroeconomic environment improved slightly in early 2024 but remained challenging due to high interest rates and inflation, affecting global demand. Geo-political conflicts and supply chain disruptions adds additional layer of uncertainty to the overall macroeconomic landscape.

On petrochemical sector, the industry faced demand and supply challenges on both consumer and producer fronts. Weakened consumer demand coupled with relatively stable crude prices, and structural capacity additions have eased supplies somewhat during the year. Nevertheless, the recent policy stimulus by the Chinese government could provide some support to stabilize the demand and supply equilibrium. In the fertilizer segment, macroeconomic environment stabilized after reaching its peak during 2022 coupled with restoration of European production which improved supply conditions. On an overall basis, nitrogen fertilizer prices have remained relatively stable, on the backdrop of normalization of supply.

During early part of 2024, macro-economic outlook for the steel segment remained somewhat challenging with muted demand in property sector in larger economies like China together with weaker consumer demand amid hawkish monetary policy albeit higher interest rate environment and falling consumer confidence, limited domestic demand coupled with slowdown in global construction activities. Steel prices were further impacted by sharp decline in raw material prices such as iron ore / scrap materials.

However, with recent policy initiatives by larger economies like China whereby Chinese government has taken a series of initiatives to boost the economy is expected to benefit the construction segment and thereby the steel sector in general.