MOSCOW (MRC) -- Tronox (Stamford, Connecticut) reports fourth-quarter adjusted net income of USD28 million, up 47% year-over-year (YOY) from USD19 million, driven by higher titanium dioxide (TiO2) and zircon volumes, according to Chemweek.
Adjusted earnings per share came to USD0.19, missing the consensus estimate of USD0.26 as compiled by Zacks Investment Research.
Net income from continuing operations totaled USD57 million, up from USD1 million in the year-ago quarter. Sales totaled USD783 million, up 13% YOY from USD693 million.
TiO2 revenues totaled USD587 million, up 8% YOY on an 8% increase in volume. “TiO2 sales volumes increased globally year-over-year (YOY), led by South and Central America, followed by North America and Europe, Middle East, and Africa,” says the company. Zircon revenues totaled USD94 million, up 32% YOY as a 48% increase in volume, mainly on demand recovery in China, offset a 10% decline in price. Revenues from feedstock and other products totaled USD94 million, up 31% YOY.
“Tronox delivered exceptional results in the fourth quarter, with the highest adjusted EBITDA results since closing the Cristal acquisition,” says John D. Romano, co-chief executive officer on an interim basis. “Driving these results is a significant recovery across all products, end markets, and geographies across our portfolio. As we have entered 2021, market demand for TiO2 and zircon remains strong. Due to the favorable market trajectory, we anticipate TiO2 sales volumes to increase 11-15% sequentially in Q1 2021."
As MRC reported earlier, Exxaro Resources (Pretoria, South Africa), a diversified resources firm, will sell off the bulk of its stake in Tronox in a public offering. The 17-million share secondary public offering will reduce Exxaro’s stake in Tronox to about 1.6% from about 14.6%. Exxaro began selling down its stake in Tronox, which had previously exceeded 40%, in 2017. The company took a stake in Tronox in 2012, in compensation for Tronox’s acquisition of Exxaro’s mineral sands operations. A 2019 deal also saw Tronox acquire Exxaro’s interest in its South African subsidiaries, which hold mining licenses for a variety of titanium dioxide raw materials. Tronox is also issuing to Exxaro about 7.2 million ordinary shares in the entire company in exchange for Exxaro’s 26% interest in Tronox’s South African subsidiaries, which hold mining licenses for a variety of titanium dioxide raw materials. Those shares are being included as part of the public offering.
We remind that Russia's output of chemical products rose in November 2020 by 9.5% year on year. At the same time, production of basic chemicals increased in the first eleven months of 2020 by 6.6% year on year. According to the Federal State Statistics Service of the Russian Federation, polymers in primary form accounted for the greatest increase in the January-November 2020 output. November production of benzene grew to 120,000 tonnes from 106,000 tonnes a month earlier due to higher capacity utilisation of several producers. Overall output of this product reached 1,236,600 tonnes over the stated period, down by 2.2% year on year.
MRC