Poland’s Synthos (Oswiecim; www.synthosgroup.com) has reported feeling the impact of the sales slump from Q3 2022 onwards. However, because the first half of the year had gone well, increased raw material and energy costs were priced in, and the rubber business had been taken over from Trinseo, the chemical group’s sales climbed 45% to PLN 12.84 bn (EUR 2.8 bn) last year.

Despite the overall increase in revenue, earnings declined slightly, with adjusted EBITDA down 9.1% to PLN 2.02 bn and net income off 16% to PLN 1.14 bn. Compared to other companies in the chemical industry, the decline in earnings in the difficult financial year of 2022 was said to be rather moderate.

This also applies to the plastics-relevant Insulation Materials segment, which produces primarily EPS and XPS materials for insulation and packaging. Adjusted EBITDA eased 4.4% to PLN 1.08 bn, although sales of EPS and XPS fell by 13% to 462,000 t due to weak demand in the second half. The decline reportedly resulted from lower orders for white EPS and XPS.

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Synthos said sales of grey EPS remained stable in 2022. This comes as no surprise, as the company invested in a second production line for the material at its headquarters in Oswiecim in 2021, and demand for grey EPS benefited from subsidy programmes in Italy and France last year.

Even though the division sold less EPS and XPS in the full year, the operations increased revenue 13% to PLN 5.07 bn by passing on higher raw material and energy costs. The business unit generated a total of 42% of its revenue in its home market of Poland.