2014 leaves some resin firms in the black while others struggle

On the financial side, 2014 was good for Hexcel Corp., so-so for Celanese Corp. and it could have been better for Omnova Solutions.

All three publicly held plastics firms recently reported their annual results for 2014. Hexcel — a composites maker based in Stamford, Conn. — fared best of the three, with record sales and profit. Sales for the year were up almost 11 percent to just under $1.9 billion, while profit jumped more than 11 percent to $209.4 million.

Hexcel's Commercial Aerospace unit accounted for almost two-thirds of the firm's sales in 2014. In September, Hexcel announced plans to build a new $250 million carbon fiber plant in France, with some of that output going into Airbus aircraft.

“The company's focus in 2015 will be driving manufacturing throughput, capacity expansion and superior execution,” CEO Nick Stanage said in a news release.

Dallas-based Celanese — the world's largest acetal maker — saw 2014 sales grow 4.5 percent to $6.8 billion. Sales in its Advanced Engineered Materials unit — including acetal — jumped almost 8 percent to $1.46 billion.

But the firm's annual profit fell 44 percent to $620 million, with operating income from Advanced Engineered Materials plummeting 76 percent to $221 million. The firm's 2014 profit was affected by a fourth-quarter charge of $256 million connected to “actuarial losses.”

Advanced Engineered Materials' sales volume in pounds grew 9 percent in 2014 from higher sales into auto, industrial and consumer applications in Europe and Asia, officials said in a news release. Celanese also finished 2014 with “the strongest balance sheet in our history,” chairman and CEO Mark Rohr said in the release.

Celanese's 2014 activity included buying the assets of Cool Polymers, a maker of conductive polymers in North Kingston, R.I. The firm also debuted SlideX — a specialty acetal grade for injection molding — at the Fakuma trade show in Germany.

Omnova is looking to brighter days in 2015 after reporting that its 2014 sales fell 3 percent to $987 million and that profit for the year fell more than 40 percent to $11.5 million.

“We have taken, and will continue to take, decisive actions to respond to recent market declines in our traditional core businesses,” chairman and CEO Kevin McMullen said in a news release.

Plastic products made by Beachwood, Ohio-based Omnova include polymer emulsions and plastic laminates. The firm also is embroiled in a battle with activist investor Barington Capital Group LP for alleged financial underperformance. Barington has nominated three candidates for the Omnova board, including former A. Schulman Inc. chief Joseph Gingo.

On Wall Street, the per-share stock prices of Hexcel, Celanese and Omnova in 2014 were buffeted by market turbulence. Hexcel's per-share price bounced between $36 and $46 and was at $44.20 in late trading Jan. 23.

Celanese's per-share price showed even more volatility, moving within a range of $48 to $66 and settling at $54.45 on Jan. 23. The 2014 per-share price range for Omnova was between $5 and $11, with its Jan. 23 price just under $7.