MOSCOW (MRC) -- Perstorp has recorded a net profit of 294 million Swedish krona (USD32.66 million) in the second quarter, swinging from a net loss of SKr41 million in the same period of the previous year, said Chemweek.
This is mainly due to a large difference in exchange-rate effects on net debt between the two periods. Meanwhile, net sales fell 32% year on year (YOY) to SKr2.08 billion, caused by measures to tackle COVID-19 that drove demand down worldwide and due to lower selling prices linked to falling raw material costs, Perstorp says.
EBITDA excluding nonrecurring items decreased by 27% YOY in the second quarter, to SKr265 million, the company says. Despite the weaker quarterly performance, the company was able to partially offset the negative impact of COVID-19 through a positive product mix together with lower fixed costs following strict spending controls.
For the first half of 2020, Perstorp’s net sales declined by 24%, to SKr4.79 billion, from SKr6.28 billion in first-half 2019, the company says. EBITDA excluding nonrecurring items amounted to SKr686 million in first-half 2020, down from SKr840 million in the corresponding period of the previous year. This is mainly due to lower volumes together with lower unit margins for some product lines caused by COVID-19 and expenses related to the refinancing of the company’s capital structure that was completed in the first quarter of 2019, the company says.
The company’s free cash flow in the second quarter amounted to SKr323 million, up from SKr221 million in the second quarter of 2019, as the lower earnings were counterbalanced by a favorable development in working capital, Perstorp says. Available funds, liquid funds, and unutilized credit facilities were SKr1.23 billion at the end of the second quarter, compared with SKr944 million at the end of the previous quarter and SKr1.25 billion at the end of 2019, the company says.
Perstorp says it has decided to postpone the construction of a Penta plant in Gujarat State, India. "The lockdown situation in India has had a large impact on the construction site and the current demand situation is uncertain. All construction work is put on hold for the time being but the ambition is to resume full operations when the visibility for the future has improved and it is possible to resume work as planned,” Secher says.
As MRC informed earlier, in the fall of 2018, Perstorp closed production at the phthalic anhydride plant in Nol, Sweden for scheduled maintenances at the plant with a capacity of 35,000 tonnes/year.
Phthalic anhydride is widely used in the production of paints and varnishes and plasticizers for PVC products. To a small extent, it is used in the production of industrial rubber goods and tires. In addition, it is used in the light, pharmaceutical and electrical industries.
According to MRC DataScope, the export of suspension polyvinyl chloride (PVC-S) from Russia amounted to about 92.2 thousand tons in the first five months of this year, which is 10% more than in 2019. Import volumes grew by only 1%.
Perstorp is one of the world leaders in various sectors of the specialty chemicals market, it's pioneer in formalin chemistry, plastics and surface materials. Perstorp was founded in 1881 and is controlled by PAI partners,a major European private equity company. The company has around 1,500 employees in with 22 production plants in Europe, Asia and North America.
MRC