Rohm and Haas reports 13% sales increase in third quarter
Philadelphia-based Rohm and Haas has announced sales of $1,803 million for the third quarter of the fiscal year, an increase of 13% on a year-on-year basis compared with the same period for 2003. This increase has been attributed to strong demand for the company’s products and higher selling prices.
“This quarter’s results reflect the continuation of the solid growth we experienced in late 2003 across our key markets, as well as the impact of the higher pricing we have been implementing during the year,“ said Rohm and Haas’ Chairman and CEO, Raj L Gupta.
"We saw increased demand across all our business segments and most regions, particularly Asia-Pacific," continued Gupta, but he also remarked that the improved global economy was putting pressure on supply and pricing for petrochemical-based raw materials and other commodities, tempering the impact of the higher demand on gross profit margins.
"The unprecedented escalation of raw material costs has required us to be quick and persistent in pursuing price increases to contain the erosion of gross profit margins," he said, "and this quarter's results provide evidence that while we have not yet been able to recover all these higher raw material and energy related costs through pricing, we are making progress."
Sales for the first nine months of the year now stand at $5,436 million, 14% higher than the figures recorded for the same period in 2003.
