The enterprise’s net sales were halved, to $529 mln (€374 mln) from $1.035 billion (€731 mln) in the first half of 2008, mainly because of the drop in the price of a barrel of oil.
“The loss from the exchange rate difference is $17.4 million. If it had not been for that, we would have had a profit of $12.8 million. Anyhow, the second quarter was much better than the first, because we regained some ground,” Tampiza told Business Standard.
Other factors that led to these results are the vulnerability of the market, together with the drop in fuel prices for several months, Tampiza added, saying that no estimates can be made for the second half of this year or the whole of 2009.
