Clariant significantly improves cash flow for FY 2007
15 Feb '08
3 min read
Profitable growth in service-driven businesses and strong focus on pricing improvements across all divisions Overall, the service-driven businesses at Clariant saw profitable growth. For example, the Oil Service Business increased sales and profitability, benefiting from strong demand for crude oil.
The Coatings Business was able to offset weakening market development in Europe by good sales and profitability growth in Asia and Latin America. Masterbatches also performed well in 2007. The Leather Business, on the other hand, suffered from declining demand and overcapacity. Within the product-driven businesses, the Detergents and Specialty Intermediates Business had a difficult year due to increasing raw material costs.
The efforts on price increases have started to pay off in all divisions, with increasing momentum towards the end of the year. The Pigments and Additives Division, as well as Textile, Leather and Paper Chemicals, reversed the negative trend of declining prices of recent years and achieved higher selling prices towards the end of the year. Price increases in the Functional Chemicals Division also mitigated the margin squeeze towards year-end. The Masterbatches Division was able to fully compensate the rising raw material and energy costs by price increases.
marketing@alchempro.com
