THE WOODLANDS, TX -- Huntsman Corp., one of the world's largest suppliers of chemical products, today reported fourth quarter net loss of $61million, including $20.2 million in restructuring, impairment and plant closing costs, versus a net loss of $1.2 million including charges a year ago.


For the quarter, revenues rose slightly to $3.15 billion, from $3.12 billion in 2004. The company took a total of $101.9 million in charges for debt replayment, restructuring, impairment and plant closings. Adjusted net income from continuing operations excluding items was $33.3 million.

For the year, Huntsman's sales rose 13.4% to $12.96 billion.

In a press release, president and CEO Peter R. Huntsman called the quarter "extremely challenging" because of Hurricane Rita, which came ashore near the company's largest manufacturing site. The firm does not expect the aftermath to affect 2006 results, he said.

Operations were also hurt by raw materials prices and energy costs.

"We are optimistic about our outlook for 2006. Demand in our differentiated businesses remains strong, raw material and energy prices have recently declined, and capacity additions in most of our commodity businesses appear to be limited over the next several years. However, we expect that the margin weakness that we experienced in the latter half of 2005 in our European petrochemicals business to continue into early 2006.