LyondellBasell Industries continued its recovery in 2021 with strong second-quarter financial results.
Overall sales at the Houston-based petrochemicals giant were $11.6 billion for the quarter, more than double the sales from the same quarter in 2020, which was heavily impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. The firm's quarterly profit surged almost seven times in the same comparison to $2.1 billion.
In a July 30 news release, CEO Bob Patel said that LyondellBasell's outstanding results "demonstrate that our company continues to be well positioned to benefit from the ongoing global economic recovery."
Quarterly sales at LyondellBasell's Olefins and Polyolefins — Americas unit surged 164 percent to $3.7 billion. The unit's operating profit grew more than 10 times to $1.4 billion.
At LyondellBasell's Advanced Polymer Solutions unit, which ranks as North America's largest plastics compounder, quarterly sales grew more than 84 percent to $1.3 billion. Operating income for the unit swing from a loss of $83 million in the second quarter of 2020 to a gain of $101 million this year.
For the first half of 2021, LyondellBasell's total sales were up more than 58 percent to $20.6 billion, with profit up more than six times to $3.1 billion.
Looking ahead, Patel said that officials "expect demand for LyondellBasell's products and our associated financial results to remain stronger for the foreseeable future."
"As we work to overcome the challenges of variants, the phased rollout of vaccines and the progression of societal reopening … should support robust global demand for our products in both the manufactured goods and service industries for several quarters to come," he added.
Patel also said that as customers address order backlogs, rebuild inventories and serve pent up consumer demand, LyondellBasell expects strong integrated polyethylene margins to continue. Increasing mobility during the second half of 2021 also should drive higher demand for gasoline and jet fuel, providing additional tailwinds by improving margins.
On Wall Street, LyondellBasell's per-share stock price began the year around $89.30 but was just under $100 in late trading Aug. 2 for an increase of almost 12 percent.
LyondellBasell is one of the world's largest producers of polypropylene and PE resins and is North America's largest plastics compounder. The firm has operations in more than 100 countries and posted sales of $27.7 billion in 2020.