Leverkusen, Germany – Sales in Covestro's polyurethanes business rose by 8.1% in the second quarter of 2018, and there was a 3.9% rise in volumes, according to its half year report.
Covestro diisocyanate prices start to moderate in H1
Increased performance from the MDI product group helped the quarterly numbers, Covestro said.
Over the first half of 2018, sales were up 7.6% in the division to EUR 3.9bn. At the same time, volumes were up 1.4%.
EBITDA in the second quarter at EUR 583m and in the first half of EUR 1.2bn were both up, by 6.2% and 20% respectively compared with the previous year periods.
The bulk of these increases came from increased prices, which were up 13.2% in the first half of 2018 compared with the first half of 2017. Although significant, this is about half the 26% price increase that the business experienced in the first half of 2017 compared with 2016.
Thomas Toepfer, Covestro's CFO, said there are signs that prices are normalising for TDI. He promised that the company will try to reduce the cyclical nature of its portfolio of businesses. It will do this by developing differentiated applications in the automotive, electronics and healthcare sectors.
Sales in Covestro’s coating, adhesives and specialties business were up 4.1% compared with the 2017 quarter. They reached EUR 629m, which the company described as a 'significant improvement compared with the prior year period'.
Over the first half, however, they were down 1.6% at EUR 1.2bn.
Overall, Covestro's first half sales were up 7.9% on the first half of 2017 at EUR 7.6bn. EBITDA was EUR 3bn for the group. This was up 20% on the first six months of 2017.
