Mitsui Chemicals Inc. said Friday its group net profit tumbled 71.3 percent in the fiscal first half of 2003 to 3.71 billion yen due to extraordinary losses.
Mitsui Chemicals, one of Japan's biggest chemical companies, also blamed the profit fall on smaller gains from the sale of equity holdings.
Mitsui Chemicals booked 12.62 billion yen in extraordinary losses, including 3.26 billion yen from the liquidation of fixed assets and 3.06 billion yen from making up for a shortage of reserves for retirement allowances.
Group pretax profit fell 18.2 percent to 14.39 billion yen on a 14.8 percent fall in operating profit to 18.83 billion yen, mainly due to higher raw materials prices and the suspension of operations at its Osaka petrochemical factory due to a breach of safety inspection rules.
Increased sales of resin products and functional chemicals more than offset decreased sales of petrochemical products, lifting group sales 4.6 percent to 525.56 billion yen.
Mitsui Chemicals said it will keep its interim dividend unchanged at 3 yen per share.