Covestro has reported its financial results for the full-year 2022. Despite lower sales volumes as a consequence of the recessionary environment, Covestro’s group sales grew by 13% to €18.0 billion (previous year: €15.9 billion). A key factor in that was a considerably higher selling price level. High energy and raw material prices and slackening demand in the course of the year impacted the group’s EBITDA. It fell in full-year 2022 by 47.6% over the prior-year figure to €1.6 billion (previous year: €3.1 billion).
Net income declined to €-272 million (previous year: €1.6 billion), in particular as a result of exceptional impairments of noncurrent assets totaling €463 million and impairment losses on deferred tax assets from tax loss carryforwards totaling €255 million. Despite the challenging economic environment, Covestro achieved a positive free operating cash flow (FOCF) of €138 million thanks to strong working capital management. ROCE above WACC in full-year 2022 was -5% (previous year: 12.9%). The nonfinancial key management indicator for reducing greenhouse gas emissions improved by 9.6% to 4.7 million metric tons of CO2 equivalents (previous year: 5.2 million metric tons).