Woodland Park, New Jersey - Cytec Industries Inc. has reported a 23 percent drop in sales in its Coatings Resins unit - which contains most of Cytec's polyurethane activities - to $336 million in the third quarter of 2009 (Q3), compared to Q3 2008.
Although overall selling volumes in Coatings Resins were down 16 percent against Q3 2008, compared to the second quarter, volumes improved by 12 percent due to a partial recovery as a result of customer restocking, the global speciality chemical company said 15 Oct.
Operating earnings in the segment fell to $18.5 million compared to $22.7 million in Q3 2008, primarily due to weaker selling volumes across each product line and reduced production rates, Cytec said.
Overall, Cytec's sales fell to $740.2 million in Q3 from $963 million for the same period last year.
"Our cost-reduction efforts are benefiting us particularly in the Coatings Resins segment, where we have seen a significant improvement in earnings from the first half of this year," said Cytec chairman Shane Fleming.
"Coatings Resins had sequential improvement in sales from the second to third quarter 2009 and this modest improvement signals customer restocking activity across the speciality chemicals segment," he added. (RD)
"
