LANXESS
Performance Polymers drive Q2 earnings / EBITDA forecast for 2010 is upgraded
 Lanxess' Chempark in Leverkusen. The company has revised its annual forecast upward (Photo: Lanxess) |
Performance Polymers, the plastics and rubber segment of Lanxess (Leverkusen / Germany; www.lanxess.com), drove group earnings growth in the second quarter and first half of 2010, CEO Axel Heitmann said in a telephone conference with journalists. The influence was strongest in Asia and Latin America, and the automotive industry was the motor of demand. Synthetic rubber, but also the semi-crystalline plastics PA and PBT led the upturn.
Due to the unexpectedly strong first-half performance, Lanxess has revised its annual forecast upward, with EBITDA pre-execptionals now expected to total EUR 800m rather than the EUR 650-700m predicted earlier. By comparison, EBITDA for full-year 2009 – which Heitmann at the time said was marked by a “decline of historic proportions” – was only EUR 465m. More than half the 2010 target was achieved in the first two quarters, when EBITDA leapt forward to EUR 502m from EUR 179m a year earlier, and sales rose by 50% to EUR 3.44 bn.
Figures for the second quarter show that group EBITDA pre-exceptionals more than doubled against the 2009 quarter, rising from EUR 112m to EUR 269m. The EBITDA margin rose to 14.9% from 9%. Sales increased by 48% to EUR 1.83 bn, with selling prices having an 18.7% effect, volumes 22.3%. This was a strong rebound from the 2009 quarter, when EBITDA dropped by 50% against the 2008 period and sales receded by 30%.
In Performance Polymers, EBITDA swelled to 171m from EUR 52m. The segment’s EBITDA margin, up to 17.8% from 9.3%, topped the group average. Driven by polymer price hikes, revenues increased by 71% to EUR 958m. To meet growing Asian demand, Lanxess will build a second compounding facility for its “Durethan” PA and “Pocan” PBT at Jhagadia / India, due to go on stream in 2012 with an initial capacity of 20,000 t/y and an investment cost of more than EUR 10m – see Plasteurope.com of 22.06.2010.
To reflect the greatly improved outlook, Lanxess is partly revising its “Challenge 09-12” scheme, in which non-managerial employees worked reduced hours at reduced pay – see Plasteurope.com of 14.08.2009 and 02.02.2009 – managerial employees had to forego some of their variable pay, and managing board members took 10% pay cuts. German employees will be returned in two stages to their previous union-scale pay, retroactive to 1 July 2010 and from the beginning of 2011. Some of the cuts in managerial pay also will be restored.
e-Service:
Lanxess half-year financial report as a PDF document
Due to the unexpectedly strong first-half performance, Lanxess has revised its annual forecast upward, with EBITDA pre-execptionals now expected to total EUR 800m rather than the EUR 650-700m predicted earlier. By comparison, EBITDA for full-year 2009 – which Heitmann at the time said was marked by a “decline of historic proportions” – was only EUR 465m. More than half the 2010 target was achieved in the first two quarters, when EBITDA leapt forward to EUR 502m from EUR 179m a year earlier, and sales rose by 50% to EUR 3.44 bn.
Figures for the second quarter show that group EBITDA pre-exceptionals more than doubled against the 2009 quarter, rising from EUR 112m to EUR 269m. The EBITDA margin rose to 14.9% from 9%. Sales increased by 48% to EUR 1.83 bn, with selling prices having an 18.7% effect, volumes 22.3%. This was a strong rebound from the 2009 quarter, when EBITDA dropped by 50% against the 2008 period and sales receded by 30%.
In Performance Polymers, EBITDA swelled to 171m from EUR 52m. The segment’s EBITDA margin, up to 17.8% from 9.3%, topped the group average. Driven by polymer price hikes, revenues increased by 71% to EUR 958m. To meet growing Asian demand, Lanxess will build a second compounding facility for its “Durethan” PA and “Pocan” PBT at Jhagadia / India, due to go on stream in 2012 with an initial capacity of 20,000 t/y and an investment cost of more than EUR 10m – see Plasteurope.com of 22.06.2010.
To reflect the greatly improved outlook, Lanxess is partly revising its “Challenge 09-12” scheme, in which non-managerial employees worked reduced hours at reduced pay – see Plasteurope.com of 14.08.2009 and 02.02.2009 – managerial employees had to forego some of their variable pay, and managing board members took 10% pay cuts. German employees will be returned in two stages to their previous union-scale pay, retroactive to 1 July 2010 and from the beginning of 2011. Some of the cuts in managerial pay also will be restored.
e-Service:
Lanxess half-year financial report as a PDF document
09.08.2010 Plasteurope.com [216969]
Published on 09.08.2010
German version of this article...