NPC's output in the six months to 20 September 2004 reached 7.6m tonnes up by 9% over the same period last year. Half-year export earnings rose by 34% to $808m. NPC's year-end output is expected to reach 19m tonnes. NPC predicts that it can finish the year with export revenues of $1.7bn. Last year, the company produced 14m tonnes of various petrochemicals and exported $1.2bn worth of products.




The Chemical Insight/Reed Chemical Group's top 100 analysis shows NPC continues to grow rapidly. Chemical News & Intelligence (CNI) has reported on its website that the data shows a marked difference in spending patterns across the industry. The data are for companies in 2003 and fiscal 2003-04. They relate to corporate spending but also to the spending on capital growth in chemicals for the oil majors. CNI said the petrochemicals business is probably heading for the peak of its latest capital-driven business cycle in 2005, adding, the established players are losing out - or are changing and adapting perhaps as they accept new global realities. The cutbacks in capital spending made by the large, established Western chemical producers were significant, although a handful of firms were re-orienting and spending relatively heavily. The picture was very different from the perspective of the Middle East and Asia. Capital spending for many firms continued apace. The capital spending data demonstrate the fight for future growth in the science-based chemicals businesses and industrial gases. That battle is not being joined further up the production chain by the well-established players. Notable exceptions are NPC in Iran, a company that continues to grow rapidly, and Saudi Arabia's Sabic which is expanding further, CNI said in its report.

NPC top on capital spending and development in chemicals 2003

Company	Capital spending($m)	Change(%)
NPC(Iran)	3996	36.8
BASF	2888	-14.3
DSM	2512	302.0
Sabic	2435	65.5
Bayer	2191	-27.0
DuPont	1713	33.8
Atofina	1405	-9.9
Air Product	1171	45.3
Dow Chemical	1100	-32.2
Shin-Etsu	1090	51.0
Sumitomo Chemical	1058	-27.5
Degussa	991	-21.4
Sinopec	888	-0.9
Asahi Kasei	829	-8.1
UCB	824	298.8
BP	775	-5.8
Akzo Nobel	732	-15.7
LG Chem	705	35.4
Solvay	699	-14.0
Exxon Mobil	692	-27.5
Mitsubishi Chemical	665	-18.8
Mitsui Chemical	660	-41.5
Praxair	644	29.3
Shell	599	-40.0
Linde	500	-1.0

NPC expects another record year of output and sales for the next Iranian calendar year which begins on March 21, 2005. According to a plan approved by the NPC board of directors, the company's year-end output will reach 27m tonnes incorporating commercial output from 14 of the NPC's grassroots, expansion and debottlenecking projects. The plans will be running at 81% utilization rate. The output target consists of 17.8m tonnes of saleable products of which 6.8m tonnes will be supplied to domestic users and 11m tonnes will be exported. NPC's aim is to raise annual revenues from its exports to over $3.6bn and to increase the value of domestic sales to over $1.8bn by the end of 2005.


NPC President Mohammad Reza Netamzadeh received a high-ranking German delegation headed by Dr. Tacke, State Secretary of the German Federal Ministry of Economics and Labor. At the meeting, Mr. Nematzadeh provided the delegation with firsthand information on the NPC's current relations with its German partners. He also highlighted the potential fields of further cooperation. The two sides stressed that the trend of mutual relations should be expanded.