Clariant's sales volume continues to increase, and the plastics and coatings business sector is slowly advancing

Recently, Clariant, a specialty chemicals company, announced that sales in the first quarter of 2019 totaled CHF 1.715 billion, down from CHF 1.722 billion in the same period last year Despite the high comparative base, organic sales increased by 2% in local currency thanks to price increases across all business areas In terms of the subregion, in terms of local currency, sales in Latin America, Europe, the Middle East and Africa all achieved single digit growth, while sales in North America and Asia recorded a negative growth of 1% Continued weak demand in China has had a negative impact on the group's sales growth in the first quarter The improvement in sales performance in the first quarter of 2019 is due to the growth of three business areas: nursing chemicals, catalysts and natural resources Despite the adverse impact of the decline in air de icing business due to the warm winter, the sales of nursing chemicals increased by 2% in local currency year-on-year In addition to the aviation business, nursing chemicals sales achieved a medium single digit increase in local currency terms This growth is mainly due to the significant growth of consumer care products business The catalyst business performed well, with sales up 4% year-on-year in local currency terms from a record in the first quarter of last year In local currency terms, sales in the natural resources business increased by 10%, mainly due to increased demand for oil and mining services and stable growth in functional minerals In local currency terms, sales in the plastics and coatings business fell 2% year-on-year, mainly because the growth in the automotive and plastics markets failed to meet expectations, and the global economy, especially China's, slowed But China's basic demand is still strong, and Klein expects to improve gradually for the rest of 2019 According to the latest report, EBITDA after deduction of special items is CHF 236 million, with the EBITDA rate of 13.8% Absolute EBITDA, excluding special items, fell 8% due to lower profitability in the plastics and coatings business and higher project costs due to Clariant's announcement in September 2018 of its transformation to a high-value specialty chemicals company At present, the work of related projects is progressing smoothly Compared with last year, the nursing chemicals and catalyst business areas have achieved significant growth, and the natural resources business area has also achieved an expected increase in profitability compared with the same period last year "In the first three months of this year, Clariant achieved sustained organic sales growth despite challenging macroeconomic conditions." Ernesto occhiello, CEO of Clariant, said: "we are committed to providing the best customer experience in the industry and meeting customers' needs quickly and reliably, which is fully reflected in the development of the three business areas of care chemicals, catalysts and natural resources Despite the negative impact of the current economic and business environment on the plastics and coatings business, we believe that we have the ability to make progress throughout the year We will continue to identify the future challenges facing our customers and meet their future needs, so as to achieve higher than the market average growth, higher profitability and stronger cash generation "