Siam Cement Pcl reported a 16 per cent fall in 3Q17 net profit on Wednesday due to weak demand and lower margins in its chemical and packaging segments.

According to a poll by Thomson Reuters, the net profit for the third quarter was THB11.84bn (US$357.06m) thereby missing expectations of THB14bn. Revenue from sales rose seven per cent to THB112.43bn. Domestic cement volume sales were also down two per cent YoY.

Revenue from Vietnam, Indonesia and the Philippines helped by increasing profits by five per cent from last year.

Profit of the chemical unit dropped 18 per cent due to smaller margins for some chemicals, even after overall price hikes. Siam Cement Pcl said this was the result of disruption at oil fields in Libya and expectations of oil production cut by OPEC and non-OPEC producers.

In addition, the packaging unit reported a THB772bn profit which was negatively impacted by lower margins of pulp and paper.