Francois Vleugelsce, CEO of (288 CZK, 0,38%) AS, said the company had a ``good'' second quarter. According to Mr. Vleugelsce the petchem environment continued to be very good. On the retail side, margins were under pressure but the volumes were very good. In refining, in the first two months there were very strong margins, which however declined in the last month of June. (288 CZK, 0,38%) will report second-quarter earnings on Aug. 13.
Our view:
Despite rising crude oil prices petchem margins remained broadly flat quarter on quarter. Cracks for olefins, which are the major products in Unipetrol’s portfolio went down a mere 2% q/q in average. In the meantime volumes were strong as refineries were operating at maximum capacities ahead of shutdowns in 2H07. All in all we expect (288 CZK, 0,38%) to perform decent results in 2Q07.