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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. |
