(Yicai Global) Feb. 21 -- Shandong Fiberglass Group, a Chinese manufacturer of plastic-like materials, is once again resorting to selling fixed assets of rhodium powder to improve its financial performance.

The fiberglass maker intends to sell 200 kilograms of the alloying agent after gaining CNY243 million (USD35 million) from such sales in the past four months, the eastern Chinese firm said in a statement yesterday. Based on the current market price of CNY2,730 (USD397) per gram of this precious metal, the upcoming transaction is expected to bring about CNY546 million (USD79 million) to the company.

Shandong Fiberglass is looking to revitalize its existing assets as the firm needs less rhodium in its production process due to its maturing technology, it explained.

The move should slow the downward cycle the firm entered in 2022. In the second quarter of that year, operating income decreased by 9 percent from the first quarter and the decline widened to 27 percent in the following quarter. From July to September, net profit slumped 44 percent.

Shandong Fiberglass has taken advantage of the surging rhodium prices in recent years. The price of rhodium with a purity of 99.99 percent jumped more than five times to USD29,787 per ounce in late March 2021 from a year earlier on the London Metal Exchange, per DataYes. But since then, the price has come down to USD11,538 per ounce as of Feb. 17.

Since November, Shandong Fiberglass has sold CNY313 million of rhodium powder and pocketed CNY243 million, equaling nearly half of the firm's 2021 net profit. And there is more inventory to be sold as the company said in its 2022 interim report that the book value of rhodium is CNY1.4 billion (USD209.9 million).

Shares of Shandong Fiberglass [SHA: 605006] closed 0.1 percent down at CNY9.40 (USD1.40).

Editors: Shi Yi, Emmi Laine, Xiao Yi