MOSCOW (MRC) -- Kemira says it has upgraded its 2020 earnings projection following "good demand and cost management" in the fourth quarter, reported Chemweek.
The company now estimates its operative EBITDA in the second half of 2020 to have been above the EUR214.0 million (USD260.4 million) of the first half, and operative EBITDA for full-year 2020 to have increased from EUR410 million in 2019.
The new update is partly a reversal of the estimate the company provided in October 2020, according to which it expected its operative EBITDA in the second half of 2020 to be lower than in the first half of the year. The expectation for full-year operative EBITDA is the same as in October’s update.
In November, Kemira updated its 2020 financial targets and said it was aiming for an operative EBITDA margin of 15–18%, growth above market rates, and a debt/equity ratio below 75%.
As MRC informed earlier, in September 2020, Kemira signed a multi year extension of its polymer supply agreement with Ithaca Energy. Kemira said it had signed a multiyear extension to its polymer supply agreement with Ithaca Energy (Aberdeen, UK). The agreement extends the contract between the two companies, signed in 2018, covering the supply of polymers to enhance oil extraction performance at one of the assets operated by Ithaca Energy in the UK North Sea.
Ethylene and propylene are feedstocks for producing polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP).
According to MRC's DataScope report, PE imports to Russia decreased in January-November 2020 by 17% year on year and reached 569,900 tonnes. High density polyethylene (HDPE) accounted for the greatest reduction in imports. At the same time, PP imports into Russia increased by 21% year on year to about 202,000 tonnes in the first eleven months of 2020. Propylene homopolymer (homopolymer PP) accounted for the main increase in imports.
MRC