Leverkusen, Germany -- Bayer MaterialScience continued to be affected by a difficult market situation in 2013, Management Board Chairman Dr. Marijn Dekkers, was expected to say at the company's annual results meeting.
Business with foam raw materials polyurethanes rose by 3.9% with adjustments for foreign exchange and portfolio Dekkers was expected to say.Volume gains in Asia/Pacific and North America contributed to this increase.
Selling prices as a whole were at the prior-year level, he added.
Bayer MaterialScience, which also contains a large polycarbonates business saw sales were down by 2.2 % to EUR 11.2bn compared with the 2012 figure of EUR 11.5bn but matched 2012 once adjustments for currency- and portfolio are made, Dekkers added. “MaterialScience faced considerable challenges in 2013, in what remained a difficult market environment. Both volumes and prices were virtually unchanged compared with the prior year,” Dekkers said.
Earnings Before Interest Taxation Depreciation and Amortisation before special items of Bayer MaterialScience dropped by 15.1% to EUR 1bn compared with the 2012 figure of EUR 1.3 bn mainly due to higher raw material costs. “Despite the difficult market environment for MaterialScience in 2013, we are cautiously optimistic about the future,” said Dekkers. The expected increase in capacity utilization in the industry in the coming years should relieve the pressure on prices, he added.
