Good third quarter for Clariant
04/11/2010
From a regional perspective, sales growth in North America and Europe was particularly strong, the company said. The gross margin amounted to 27.9% compared to 25.3% in Q3, 2009 resulting from better capacity utilisation and sales price increases. The company has also reduced its costs, with its workforce reducing by more than 500 people to “well below 17,000” by the end of this year.
The company recently announced the finalisation of its Global Asset Network Optimization (GANO) assessment with measures affecting the sites in Reinach (Switzerland), Nanterre (France), McHenry (USA), Delta (Canada), Sefakoy (Turkey), Guatemala City (Guatemala), Roha (India), and Shizuoka (Japan). The implementation of all GANO measures announced in 2009 and 2010 will be finalised by 2013 and deliver cost savings of at least CHF 100 million per year.
Chief finance officer, Patrick Jany, commented: “Clariant had a good third quarter. As expected, year-on-year sales growth was lower in the third quarter than in the first half-year of 2010, due to the higher basis in the year-earlier period. Nevertheless our stringent restructuring efforts as well as our ability to offset higher raw material costs with sales price increases resulted in an improved profitability and excellent cash generation.”
Clariant expects trading conditions to remain stable for the remainder of the year. In addition, raw material costs are expected to rise further but at a lower pace than in the first nine months of the year.
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