Kodak Attributes Lower Profits to Strong Dollar

Eastman Kodak said its profit fell 28% in the second fiscal quarter, mainly because of the strong dollar and depressed selling prices for chemicals.

Kodak said net earnings of $164.3 million in the company’s quarter ended June 16 were down 28% from $229.3 million in 1984’s second quarter.

Worldwide revenue for the world’s largest photographic company was $2.46 billion, 4% lower than the $2.56 billion posted in the second quarter of 1984.

Earnings from operations were $287.4 million, 30% less than the $409.8 million recorded a year earlier.

“The adverse impact of the overvalued U.S. dollar, coupled with depressed selling prices in the chemicals industry--which were due in large part to the dollar’s strength--more than account for the difference between 1984 earnings and those reported thus far in 1985,” Colby H. Chandler, Kodak’s chairman and chief executive, said in a statement.