Materials maker Trinseo has reported overall growth in its first quarter financial statement, including a 24 percent increase in net sales over last year.
Net sales for the company based in Berwyn, Pa., increased to $1.1 billion from $894 million last year, driven primarily through the pass through of higher raw material costs, according to the statement.
Net income rose by 42.7 percent from the previous year to $117 million. Earnings before interest, taxes, deductions and amortization (EBITDA) increased to $190 million compared to $141 million in 2016, a change of 29.6 percent.
These increases were driven mostly by favorable raw material timing, offset partially by unfavorable price lag, higher margin in its feedstocks and latex binders group, and higher sales volumes across the performance materials division. Favorable impacts were partially offset by styrene outages in feedstocks and its joint venture of Americas Strenics, lower volume and margin in basic plastics, as well as lower margin in performance plastics.
Expansion for solution-styrene butadiene rubber and new ABS capacity in China are also on schedule, said Chris Pappas, Trinseo president and CEO.
"We are making excellent progress on our performance materials growth initiatives as reflected in our results this quarter," he said. "Latex binders is improving via higher margins and cost actions. synthetic rubber and performance plastics remain strong as well."
Performance plastics net sales increased to $185 million for the quarter, a change of 9 percent. Higher sales volume increased revenue by 13 percent, excluding the recently divested Latin America business, driven by higher volumes to the automotive market in Europe and North America.
Basic Plastics grew to $381 million from $343 million in 2016 through the pass through of higher raw material costs partially offset by lower polystyrene sales volume.
Feedstocks increased to $87 million from $71.1 million last year, with higher styrene prices partially offset by lower styrene-related sales volume.