LEVERKUSEN, GERMANY (March 1, 1 p.m. ET) — Profit at Bayer MaterialScience were down by 19 percent last year as the slowing global economy took its toll on the company's polyurethane and polycarbonate products.
EBIT for 2011 amounted to 633 million euros ($843.9 million) on sales up by 8.2 percent at almost 11 billion euros ($14.7 billion), largely driven by higher prices as the business sought to recover rising costs. BMS saw its feedstock bill rise by some 15 percent in 2011 as oil prices averaged an annual record figure of $112 a barrel.
Reporting on the Bayer Group's record breaking overall performance last year, with its Healthcare and Crop Protection businesses buoyant, CEO Marijn Dekkers acknowledged that BMS “did not meet expectations.”
Nevertheless, he gave a strong commitment to its key position within the group, based on polymers' growth premium over GDP and its leadership positions.
Demand for polycarbonate however barely grew in 2011 leaving the industry working at an 85 percent capacity utilization rate, according to Bayer CFO Werner Baumann.
But progress by BMS's polycarbonate for automotive glazing came in for praise from Dekkers. “It is going extremely well based on its clarity and weight,” he told European Plastics News in Leverkusen, highlighting new applications in sun roofs.