Specialty rubber chemicals producer China Sunsine Chemical Holdings has reported a 69% drop in earnings for 1H20 ended June to RMB82.4 million ($16.3 million) compared to the RMB265.9 million posted a year ago.

 

This translates to earnings per share (EPS) of 8.46 RMB cents for the half-year period, compared to the 27.09 RMB cents in 1H19.

 

Group revenue for 1H20 fell 26% y-o-y to RMB1.0 billion due to the decrease in overall average selling price (ASP) and sales volume.

 

ASP fell 21% to RMB 13,560 per tonne in 1H20 as compared to RMB17,107 per tonne in 1H19 due to the lower raw material prices and the weaker demand for the company&rsquo s products. The weaker demand for the latter was primarily due to the lower production utilisation rate in the tire manufacturing industry on the back of the Covid-19 pandemic.

 

Sales volume for the first half of the year also declined 7% to 76,320 tonnes from 82,078 tonnes a year ago.

 

China Sunsine says its capacity utilization rate was at around 80% which was a relatively high level in the industry.

 

Gross profit fell 50% y-o-y to RMB241.9 million in 1H20. Gross profit margin decreased 11.3 percentage points to 23.2% for the half-year period.

As at June 30, cash and cash equivalents stood at RMB1.3 billion.