Honeywell finds Performance Materials sales grow as overall sales drop in Q1 2019

Morris Plains New Jersey — Honeywell, a diversified conglomerate that makes blowing agents, had total sales of $8.9bn in the first quarter of 2019, down 14.5 % on the equivalent 2018 period.

Pre-tax profit across the business fell 3.6%, and reached $1.8bn in the first quarter of 2019.

The company's performance materials and technologies business had sales that rose 1.5% between Q1 2018 and Q1 2019. They reached $2.6bn in the Q1 2019 period. This compares with $2.5bn in the previous period.

Pre-tax profit across in the division rose 8.7% and reached $ 564m in the first quarter of 2019.

Honeywell said sales in its Performance Materials and Technologies division rose 5% in the first quarter of 2019 on an organic basis. This was because of broad-based growth in automation projects and maintenance and migration services in Process Solutions. There was also continued demand for fluorine products.

The business unit's profitability margin increased by 1.4% to 21.9% because of higher sales volumes.

Across the company first quarter sales were down 14.5% because Honeywell is spinning off its transportation systems business. This formerly sat in its aerospace division. The company is also spinning off its homes and ADI global distribution business. This formerly sat in the building technologies division. Unfavourable currency translation effects also hit the numbers.

'Our investments in new product development and commercial excellence are delivering results, while positioning the company for short- and long-term success,' Darius Adamczyk, Honeywell CEO, said.