Huntsman Corp., the worldwide chemicals conglomerate operated out of Salt Lake City and The Woodlands, Texas, reported a third-quarter loss of $68 million, or 29 cents a share.

Also, its sales for the period fell 23 percent from the same period last year, to $2.1 billion, yet CEO Peter Huntsman said those numbers don't reflect the underlying performance of Huntsman Corp.

"We had a pretty good quarter," Huntsman said, noting the company sold 3 percent more product than in the third quarter last year but that prices were off 25 percent, which impacted revenue.

Kimo Esplin, Huntsman's chief financial officer, said the corporation's effective tax rate during the quarter was 304 percent.

"If we used our normalized tax rate of approximately 35 percent, our adjusted earnings ... would have been ... 6 cents per share," Esplin said during a conference call with investors and securities analysts Wednesday.

Huntsman said during the conference call that the company saw improved demand and was encouraged by its year-over-year order patterns.

He said demand appears to be picking up globally, particularly in Asia where Huntsman is seeing its strongest growth.

"I'm not sure the market has fully appreciated what we've been building in Asia," Huntsman said. "In 2006, 15 percent of our sales were in the Asia-Pacific region. This year that number is about 22 percent."

Huntsman also is seeing increased demand and growing

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sales in South and Central America. However, he said it may be some time before the company sees demand for its products in the U.S. and Europe return to the same levels experienced 18 months ago.

Huntsman's share fell 17 cents on Wednesday, to $8.02, but they are up more than 130 percent since the first of the year.

steve@sltrib.com

Other earnings

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» Natural and organic grocer Whole Foods Market Inc., known for its high-end products and similarly high prices, says lower prices are bringing shoppers back in its doors, driving a surge in fourth-quarter profit of $28.7 million, or 20 cents per share, and a jump in revenue of 2 percent.