Pryce sales volume down 5% in Q1

MANILA, Philippines — Listed Pryce Corp. expects its sales volume to drop by at least five percent this year as demand and the price of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) weakened because of the coronavirus pandemic.

In a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange, Pryce said its first quarter performance was only slightly affected by the government’s enhanced community quarantine to control the spread of the coronavirus.

It said the Luzon-wide quarantine and in select provinces was implemented near the end of the quarter, or in the third week of March.

Pryce said it was able to record a 9.4 percent rise in first quarter net income from P362.35 million last year to P396.36 million this year.

Its consolidated revenue likewise increased by 24.2 percent from P2.56 billion to P3.18 billion.

Pryce attributed the sales growth to its principal product, LPG (cooking gas), along with its cylinders and accessories and LPG gensets.

LPG products accounted for 95.3 percent of total revenues, while the balance was covered by sales of industrial gases, real estate and pharmaceutical products.

“The rise in revenue is mainly due to the 15.1 percent growth in LPG sales volume, to 58,745 metric tons (MT) compared to year-ago volume of 51,047 MT,” the firm said.

Also contributing to the revenue increase was the higher average international LPG contract price (CP) of $527 per MT during the first quarter compared to last year’s average of $465 per MT.

But for the rest of the year, Pryce said it expects the succeeding quarters to be adversely affected by the coronavirus pandemic.

“A fall of anywhere between five percent to 10 percent in sales volume (compared to 2019 levels) could result if the pandemic continues throughout the year. It is our hope that this disrupting phenomenon will be resolved soon,” it said.