As a result, the company product-to-feed margin is wider this quarter compared with the same period last year. Furthermore, the company's name-plate capacity has expanded from 2.486 million tonnes a year to 3.284 million tonnes after completion of its feed-fractionation project, which upgraded condensate feedstock in the previous quarter from 50,000 barrels a day to 70,000.

The brokerage expects Aromatics' fourth-quarter earnings to slow from the third quarter following weaker aromatics prices, resulting in a softening product-to-feed margin. However, the broker believes earnings will be higher than the net profit of Bt699 million or earnings per share (EPS) of 72 satang in last year's fourth quarter, when the product-to-feed margin was quite low at US$113 (Bt4,200) per tonne.

The broker raised its full-year earnings projection for Aromatics 18 per cent to Bt5.63 billion, or an EPS of Bt5.81, based on a revised average whole-year product-to-feed margin of $148 per tonne.