You will hear a report presented by a journalist from Tokyo.For each question(2

By Paul Abrahams in Tokyo
    Results from Japan’s largest petrochemicals companies for the year to March 31st reflect the crisis facing a sector plagued by sluggish domestic demand, over capacity, plunging prices and the appreciation of the yen.
    News from the sector’s cite trading position follows this week’s decision by Showa Denko to sell its polystyrene business.
    The company, a marginal manufacturer, sold its 30,000 tons a year Kawasaki plant to Asahi Chemical, Japan’s largest polystyrene manufacturer with capacity of about 333,000 tons a year, equivalent to about 25 per cent of the market. The move was the latest in a series of alliances and mergers as the troubled industry restructures.
    Mitsubishi Petrochemical, the country’s biggest plastics group, reported a loss of Y8. 39bn($80m)compared with a pre-tax profit last year of Y8. 25bn. The group made an operating loss of Y13. 8bn, the first since 1982. The poor result came despite cost-cutting measures, lower raw material prices, and Y4bn worth of profits from equity sales.
    Turnover fell 12.2 per cent from Y372bn to Y326bn, as prices and volumes declined. Earnings per share, which reached Y52. 5 in 1991, fell to a loss per share of Y9.44. The group, which is scheduled to merge with Mitsubishi Kasei on October 1st, cut its dividend from Y8 per share to Y4.
    Mitsubishi Kasei’s pre-tax profits fell 76. 8 per cent from Y9. 3bn last year to Y2. 2bn. The group reported its first operating loss in 40 years at Y467m, and only managed to post positive pre-tax results by selling Y15. 7bn worth of equities. Turnover fell 1. 8 percent, the fourth yearly decline, to Y696bn. The dividend was halved to Y3 per share.
    Mr. Morihisa Takano, managing director, said the newly merged group would generate pre-tax profits of Y10bn on sales of Y855bn during the year to March 1995.
    He predicted petrochemicals prices would bottom out during the summer. No decision had been made about the dividend, but the new company could pass it during the current year, the pre-tax profits at Mitsui Petrochemical industries, Japan’s biggest polyethylene maker, plunged 75 per cent from Y9bn to Y2. 26bn on sales down 9. 3 per cent at Y272bn. The company blamed poor demand for the slump which offset the benefits of cost-cutting measures. The dividend is unchanged at Y6 per share. The group forecast pre-tax profits for the current year marginally up at Y3bn on turnover of Y276bn.
    Shin-Etsu, one of Japan’s biggest makers of polyvinyl chloride, reported profits down 26.1 per cent from Y17. 6bn to Y13bn. Sales increased 0. 2 per cent from Y275bn to Y276bn. Net profits fell 26. 6 per cent to Y7. 08bn, or Y21. 85 per share.
    The group maintained the final dividend at Y3. 75, making the full-year payout Y7. 5 per share. Shin-Etsu forecast pre-tax profits for the current year of Y15. 5bn on sales of Y277bn.
    The outlook for the petrochemicals industry remains bleak. The imbalance between supply and demand for ethylene, the basic building block of petrochemicals, is about 2. 8m tons of ethylene and is set to deteriorate further this year.
    A massive 700,000-tons-a-year ethylene complex owned by Maruzen, Mitsui Petrochemical and Sumitomo Chemical comes on stream later this year and Mitsubishi Petrochemical is also commissioning a new 300,000-tons-a -year plant this year.