You will hear a report presented by a journalist from Tokyo. He talks about the difficult situations met by Japanese chemical gr

Questions 23—30
    By Paul Abrahams in Tokyo
    Results from Japan’s largest petrochemicals companies for the year to March 31 st reflect the crisis facing a sector plagued by sluggish domestic demand, over capacity, plunging prices and the appreciation of the yen.
    News of the sector’s dire trading position follows this week’s decision by Showa Denko to sell its polystyrene business.
    The company, a marginal manufacturer, sold its 30,000 tonnes a year Kawasaki Plant to Asahi Chemical, Japan’s largest polystyrene manufacturer with capacity of about 333,000 tonnes a year, equivalent to about 25 percent of the market. The move was the latest in miles of alliances and mergers as the troubled industry restructure.
    Mitsubishi Petrochemical, the country’s biggest plastics group, reported a loss of JPY 8.39 bn ($ 80m) compared with pre-tax profits last year of JPY 8.25 bn. The group made an operating loss of JPY 13.8 bn, the first since 1982. The poor result came despite cost-cutting measures, lower raw material prices, and JPY 4 bn worth of profits from equity sales.
    Turnover fell 12.2 percent from JPY 372 bn to JPY 326 bn, as prices and volumes: dived. Earnings per share, which reached JPY 52. 5 in 1991, fell to a loss per share of JPY 9. 44. The group, which is scheduled to merge with Mitsubishi Kasei on October 1st, cut its dividend from JPY 8 per share to JPY 4.
    Mitsubishi Kasei’s pre-tax profits fell 76. 8 percent from JPY 9.3 bn last year to JPY 22 bn. The group, posted its first operating loss in 40 years at JPY 467 bn, and only managed to post positive pre-tax results by selling JPY 15.7 bn worth of equities. Turnover fell 1.8 percent, the fourth yearly decline, to Y696 bn. The dividend was haired to Y3 bn per share.
    Mr. Morihisa Takano, managing director, said the newly merged group would generate pretax profits of JPY 10 bn. on sales of JPY 55 bn during the year to March 1995.
    He predicted petrochemicals prices would bottom out during the summer. No decision had been made about the dividend, but the new company could pass it during the current year, the pre-tax profits at Mitsui Petrochemical Industries, Japan’s biggest polyethylene maker, plunged 75 percent from JPY 9 bn to JPY 2. 26 bn on sales down 9. 3 percent at JPY 272 bn. The company blamed poor demand for the slump which offset the benefits of cost-cutting measures. The dividend is unchanged at per share, The group forecasts pre-tax profits for the current year marginally up at JPY 3 bn on turnover of JPY 276 bn.
    Shin-Etsu, one of Japan’s biggest makers of polyvinyl chloride, reports, profits down 26. 1 percent,from JPY 17.6 bn to JPY 13 bn. Sales increased 0. 2 percent from JPY 275 bn to JPY 276 bn. Net profits fell 26.6 percent to JPY 7.08 bn, or JPY 21.85 bn per share.
    The group maintained the final dividend of 3.75, making the full-year pay out JPY 7. 5 bn per share. Shin-Etsu forecasts pre-tax profits for the current year of JPY 15.5 bn on sales of JPY 277 bn.
    The outlook for the petrochemicals industry remains bleak. The imbalance between supply and demand for ethylene, the basic building block of petrochemicals, is about 2.8m tonnes of ethylene and is set to deteriorate further this year.
    A massive 700,000-tonne-a-year ethylene complex owned by Maruzen, Mitsui Petrochemical and Sumitomo Chemical comes on stream later this year and Mitsubishi Petrochemical is also commissioning a new 300,000-tonne-a-year plant this year.