LONDON (Alliance News) - Oil re-refiner HydroDec Group PLC on Tuesday said its pretax loss widened substantially in 2015 as it faced difficulties with its Canton facility in Ohio and as the oil price remained low.
HydroDec said its pretax loss for the year to the end of December was USD31.1 million, compared to USD8.6 million a year earlier, as revenue declined to USD43.8 million from USD54.7 million.
HydroDec said it suffered against tough market conditions in the UK and from delays and cost overruns in the commissioning of its Canton re-refinery in the US, which was damaged by an explosion and fire in December 2013.
The company said all six trains at Canton are now operational and said its focus for 2016 will be on growing its core transformer oil re-refining business, particularly in the US.
"In many ways the continuance of the rebuild of Canton into 2015 along with the relocation of the Australian operations in the first half of the year coupled with the constant decline in the price of oil from the end of 2014 meant that the company encountered a 'perfect storm' from a performance perspective and this is reflected in these results," said Chris Ellis, HydroDec's chief executive.
"However, I believe that with Canton's ongoing performance and a growing penetration of the US transformer oil market, we can now focus on delivering a profitable 2016," he added.
Shares in HydroDec were up 0.6% to 2.64 pence.
By Sam Unsted; samunsted@alliancenews.com; @SamUAtAlliance
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