INTERVIEW-SABIC steel ops face difficult conditions-CEO

RIYADH, Dec 30 (Reuters) - Saudi Basic Industries Corp 2010.SE (SABIC) expects its diverse product portfolio to help it weather the impact of lower revenues from its steel business, the company's top executive said on Monday.

SABIC, whose Hadeed steel affiliate is the kingdom's largest, has cut prices by 43 percent since September on sagging demand.

"Conditions for steel are difficult, global prices have reached too low a level to allow plants to break even and stocks are high, consumption is also declining," Mohamed al-Mady told Reuters late on Monday.

"But because we are a diversified firm that has many products, we are at the present time breaking even unlike other steel firms," he said, dismissing the possibility of redundancies.

State-controlled SABIC controls 100 percent of Hadeed. Mady could not say by how much steel demand has declined.

SABIC's metals business, made up essentially of Hadeed, accounted for 13.3 percent of SABIC's profit in the nine months to Sept. 30 and 10.3 percent of its turnover.

In addition to steel, the company produces fertilisers and petrochemicals and holds stakes in aluminium companies such as Bahrain-based Alba.

Saudi Arabia has steel production capacity of about 8.4 million tonnes, of which 5.5 million tonnes can be produced by Hadeed, according to the website of Arab Steel, an industry association.