Strong Swiss Franc Affects Clariant’s Third Quarter
MUTTENZ, Switzerland – Specialty chemicals company Clariant announced third quarter 2015 sales of CHF 1.410 billion compared to CHF 1.507 billion in the third quarter of 2014. This corresponds to a 2 percent growth in local currencies, with volumes up 1 percent and prices up 1 percent. Due to the strong currency headwind of 8 percent, sales decreased by 6 percent in Swiss francs. This was due to the ongoing strong volatility of currencies in the third quarter of 2015, in particular of the Brazilian real.
Growth in the Americas continued to be strong in the third quarter, with sales in local currencies up 20 percent in Latin America and 2 percent in North America. Europe was 1 percent lower in local currencies, impacted by a weaker end-market demand.