MOSCOW (MRC) -- Wacker Chemie expects full-year earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) to come in at EUR1.5bn for 2021, compared to EUR666m in 2020 ahead of its own forecasts and market consensus, said the company.
In an ad-hoc disclosure released after markets closed on Thursday, the company said earnings for 2021 are likely to beat the EUR1.2bn-1.4bn guidance it had set out in its third quarter results that year, which at the time had represented a hike on its original EUR900m-1.1bn forecast.
Representing nearly a billion euros over EBITDA generated in 2020 and a substantial hike on the EUR783m posted in 2019, Wacker did not set out the reasons for the anticipated jump in growth in the announcement, but had seen strong momentum for silicones and polymers I the third quarter. Third-quarter silicones division EBITDA stood at €160.5m, a 77% year on year increase and substantially above earnings posted in the second quarter of 2021, driven by volume and pricing growth.
The company’s polymers division generated earnings of EUR84.5m in the third quarter of 2021, a modest year on year dip, but significantly up quarter on quarter. Polysilicon earnings for July-August 2021 came in at EUR200.8m compared to EUR7.9m during the same period a year earlier on the back of higher solar-grade pricing, while biosolutions also saw EBITDA increase year on year.
The third-quarter rally saw the company upgrade full-year earnings guidance to EUR1.2bn-1.4bn on the back of high polysilicon pricing and strong chemicals demand, but cautioned that negative currency effects and higher raw materials pricing would be substantially higher than expected.
As per MRC, Wacker Chemie AG is moving forward with “Shape the Future,” its efficiency program initiated last November. The Munich-based chemical company has recenly announced that company management and employee representatives have agreed on a framework for the planned job cutbacks.
As MRC reported earlier, Wacker Chemie operates a 90 ktpa EVA compounding plant at the Ulsan site, consisting of two lines. The second line with a capacity of 40 thousand tons of products per year was launched in 2013.
Wacker Chemie manufactures and markets EVA dispersions under the VINNAPAS brand name. VINNAPAS polymer dispersions are used in a wide range of industries: for the production of complex thermal insulation systems, building and tile adhesives, plaster, building mixtures and mortars, cement sealing slurries and nonwovens.
MRC