The plastics group made about a fifth less sales in the past quarter.
(Photo: Reuters)
Leverkusen At the start of the year, the plastics group Covestro had to accept significant business losses in a difficult industry environment. With sales falling by a fifth to 3.74 billion euros, earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization fell by almost two thirds to 286 million euros in the first quarter compared to the same period last year, as the Dax group on Thursday after the stock market closed based on preliminary figures communicated results. While sales fell short of the expert’s expectations, the operating result was significantly higher.
The bottom line was a loss of 30 million euros, after a surplus of 416 million euros a year ago. The entire industry has suffered from very weak demand, especially since last autumn.
Due to delivery bottlenecks, many customers had previously stocked up heavily. In this situation, consumer sentiment collapsed, and people became more cautious when making purchases in view of high inflation and uncertain economic prospects. This caused demand from chemical companies to plummet.
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