LEVERKUSEN, Germany — Covestro’s business performance in the second quarter was, as expected, significantly impacted by the further spread of the coronavirus pandemic in Europe and North America. Core volumes decreased by 22.7% year-on-year from April to June due to the massive drop in demand in all key customer industries. The global coronavirus pandemic drove down core volumes with strongest volume impact in April and sequential improvement since mid-May. Group sales fell accordingly by 32.9% to around €2.2 billion (previous year: €3.2 billion). Sales in the EMLA and NAFTA regions declined more sharply than in the APAC region, mainly due to the time lag in the impact of the pandemic. As communicated in the ad-hoc statement on the preliminary key financial results on July 9, 2020, Group EBITDA was €125 million (–72.8%) and thus above market expectations for the second quarter of 2020 at the time of publication. That was attributable in particular to an accelerated recovery in demand, especially in the Polycarbonates segment, in June. Net income for the second quarter was –€52 million (previous year: €189 million). In contrast to the decline in EBITDA, free operating cash flow (FOCF) rose to €24 million (previous year: –€55 million) as a result of strict liquidity management.
“As anticipated, the global coronavirus pandemic had a significant impact on our results in the second quarter,” said Dr. Markus Steilemann, CEO of Covestro. “We took the right measures in timely fashion to protect our employees, maintain production and supply chains, and ensure continuous supply to our customers. We have managed to accomplish that very successfully to date and will continue to steer Covestro resolutely through this crisis.”