The Woodlands, Texas — Huntsman's polyurethanes business had a strong final quarter in 2016 benefiting from strong sales in the US and shortages of MDI in the Far East.
Peter Huntsman, ceo said: "MDI urethanes continues to show steady and impressive growth, with differentiated MDI sales volumes growing 6% compared to last year and representing 85% of MDI urethanes EBITDA."
MDI average selling price increased sharply in Asia during the quarter partly because of the outage at Wanhua in China.
MDI sales volumes increased primarily due to high demand in the Americas, the firm said. However, adjusted EBITDA was down because of lower MTBE margins; offset partly by higher MDI margins and sales volumes. Huntsman accounts for MTBE, a fuel oxygenate, in the same division as polyurethanes.
In the fourth quarter of 2016 polyurethane sales were $ 964 m compared to $ 909 m in the equivalent quarter of 2015. This was a 6% increase. However adjusted EBITDA for polyurethanes in the fourth quarter of 2016 were $130 m compared to $ 141 m in the same period in 2015, down 8%, Huntsman confirmed.
Taking the year as a whole, sales in the polyurethanes division were $ 3.7 bn were down by 4% compared to the $ 3.8 bn recorded in 2015. At the EBITDA level, polyurethanes recorded $ 569 bn in the 12 months ended 31 December 2016, compared with $ 573 m in the previous year, a fall of 1%.
Full year 2016 sales at Huntsman, which include: performance products, advanced materials, textile effects, and pigments & additives divisions, totalled $ 9.6 bn, compared with $ 10.3 bn in 2015. EBITDA in 2016 was $ 1.1 bn compared with $ 1.2 bn in 2015, a fall of 8% between 2015 and 2016.
