WACKER Expects Higher Sales and Earnings in Fiscal 2014
MUNICH - Wacker Chemie AG ended 2013 with lower sales and earnings compared to 2012. When presenting its 2013 annual report on March 18, the Munich-based chemical company announced that group sales totaled €4.48 billion, some 3% down on 2012 (€4.63 billion). The decline was chiefly due to weaker prices, particularly for solar-grade silicon and semiconductor wafers. All in all, price effects reduced group sales by €366 million or about 8% last year. EBITDA – earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization – for 2013 came in at €678.7 million (2012: €795.4 million). The corresponding EBITDA margin was 15.2% (2012: 17.2%). EBITDA dropped almost 15% against 2012 mainly because of persistently low solar-silicon prices. Although more or less stable from the start of 2013, annual solar-silicon prices were about a third lower on average than in 2012. Exchange-rate effects resulting from the stronger euro also slowed the earnings trend. WACKER’s chemical divisions, though, increased their EBITDA by over 11% compared to the previous year, thanks mainly to higher volumes. Looking at the bottom line, WACKER ended 2013 with group net income of €6.3 million (2012: €114.7 million), €109 million lower than a year earlier.
During the first two months of 2014, WACKER experienced healthy demand across all business divisions. Over the same period, sales were above the comparable prior-year figures, especially for polysilicon, and also for chemicals and semiconductors. Overall, WACKER anticipates generating first-quarter 2014 sales of more than €1.1 billion, compared to first-quarter sales for 2013 of €1.08 billion.