Clariant, a world leader in specialty chemicals, recently announced sales of CHF 1.923 billion in the third quarter 2012, up 3% compared to CHF 1.865 billion in the previous-year period. In local currencies, sales were 3% lower.
In the third quarter, the global economy has not stabilized as expected. While Latin America continued on a solid growth path and North America remained stable, the downturn in Europe spread from the Southern countries across the continent. At the same time, the major economies in Asia/Pacific and Middle East & Africa started to soften.
CEO Hariolf Kottmann: “Given the further deterioration of the global economy, in which slower emerging markets growth could not offset anymore a weakening in Europe, Clariant achieved a solid performance in the last three months. This was driven by a stable development of most core businesses, manifesting the consequent execution of our profitable growth strategy. Although the short-term economic challenges are expected to persist, Clariant’s mid-term guidance until 2015 remains intact.”
At group level, volumes decreased 5% year-on-year. Although volume reductions affected most businesses, the Catalysis & Energy, Functional Materials, Industrial & Consumer Specialties and Masterbatches Business Units performed solidly in this environment and are on track to achieve their full-year targets. The Oil & Mining Services Business Unit continued to grow double-digit in local currencies. On the other hand, the particularly pronounced weakness in the electronics, coatings and increasingly in the automotive industries severely affected the Additives and Pigments Business Units. Leather Services, Textile Chemicals and Paper Specialties recovered from the low previous-year’s levels and posted robust single-digit sales growth in local currencies.
