With its two remaining Electronics & Industrial and Water & Protection segments, DuPont (Wilmington, Delaware, USA; www.dupont.com) generated sales of USD 3.32 bn (EUR 3.26 bn) in the second quarter of 2022. This marks an increase of 7% over the same period last year – adjusted for primarily plastics activities of the Mobility & Materials segment, which are now classified as discontinued. Group EBITDA increased by almost the same amount, rising 6% to USD 829 mn.

Earnings growth is attributable primarily to price increases and, to a limited extent, slightly increased sales volumes in the semiconductor, general industrial, and construction and water sectors.

Electronics & Industrial with OLED materials, Kalrez perfluoroelastomer parts, and Vespel PEI components recorded the greatest increase with sales rising 16% to USD 1.53 bn and EBITDA up 13% to USD 480 mn. Half the increase in both figures, however, is attributable to the consolidation of Laird Performance Materials (Shanghai, China; www.laird.com). EBITDA for Water & Protection with polyethylene non-wovens for protective clothing and underlayment for the construction sector fell slightly to USD 348 mn with sales of just under USD 1.5 bn (up 6%).

Related: DuPont to begin talks about selling its Delrin brand POM homopolymer activities

On the basis of the current inflow of orders, CFO Lori Koch expects robust figures for the second half. She does, however, see rising inflation, logistics problems, and currency differences as having a certain braking effect. For the year as a whole, she forecasts sales of USD 13 bn to USD 13.4 bn and EBITDA of USD 3.25 bn to USD 3.35 bn.

The mobility segment that is largely earmarked for sale to Celanese (Irving, Texas, USA; www.celanese.com – see Plasteurope.com of 03.11.2021) and includes the main volume of engineering plastics such as PA, POM, and PBT, only made up slight ground in terms of sales, increasing by just under 4% to USD 1.07 bn. Pre-tax profit fell by two-thirds, however, to just USD 84 mn.

CEO Ed Breen reports that the main transaction worth around USD 700 mn for DuPont in 2022 will be completed at the end of the year. The POM business, by contrast, will probably not be sold until mid-2023. The biomaterials with brands Sorona (fibres), Susterra, and Zemea (both 1,3-propanediol), and the most recent sales figure of USD 200 mn, are already no longer part of the group. These were purchased at the end of May 2022 for some USD 240 mn by polyurethane and polyamide 6.6 producer Huafon (Ruian, Zhejiang, China; www.huafeng.com).