Materials maker Celanese Corp. posted higher sales but a slightly smaller profit in 2017.
The Dallas-based firm saw full-year sales climb 14 percent to $6.14 billion. Profit for the year dipped 6 percent to $849 million.
Celanese's Advanced Engineered Materials (AEM) unit — including acetals, nylon and plastic compounding — saw sales balloon 45 percent to almost $2.1 billion. That business has grown through a series of acquisitions. Operating profit for AEM grew more than 9 percent to $383 million.
"We set out in 2017 to further strengthen our business models in both AEM and the acetyl chain while addressing the headwinds in consumer specialties," Chairman and CEO Mark Rohr said in a Jan. 26 news release.
"In AEM, we made progress on integrating two high value-add acquisitions," he added. "Organic growth was further enhanced by extending the opportunity pipeline to the newly integrated polymers, creating current and future earnings uplift."
Looking to 2018, Rohr said that Celanese officials "expect the AEM pipeline model to evolve to a higher level of project volume."
Celanese in December acquired compounder Omni Plastics LLC of Evansville, Ind. That purchase includes Omni's Resinal de Mexico resin distribution unit in Mexico City.
Since 2014, Celanese also has acquired conductive polymers maker Cool Polymers of North Kingstown, R.I.; compounder So.F.Ter Group of Forli, Italy; and the nylon compounding business of Nilit Ltd. of Migdal HaEmek, Israel. The Nilit deal took place in early 2017.
Celanese enjoyed a banner year on Wall Street in 2017, with its per-share stock price climbing from $84 to $112 for an increase of 33 percent. The price was near $111 in late trading Jan. 26.