Cabot goes into profit in Q2 as margins improve

Boston, Massachussetts - Cabot Corp. has announced net income of $12 million for the three months ended 31 March 2006, compared with a net loss of $50 million a year earlier.

Commenting on the results, Kennett Burnes, Cabot's chairman and ceo, said, "Although our margins in rubber blacks and performance products improved from last quarter, high raw material and natural gas costs in the second quarter continued to put a great deal of pressure on margins and working capital." He continued, " Rubber blacks and fumed metal oxides significantly increased volume and we began to see some volume stability in the performance products portion of the Carbon Black Business."

In a statement, Cabot said, "The Carbon Black Business reported operating profits of $26 million compared with $41 million in the second quarter of fiscal 2005 and $21 million in the first quarter of fiscal 2006. When compared to the second quarter of fiscal 2005, rubber blacks experienced excellent volume growth in most regions of the world offset by lower unit margins due to higher feedstock costs. The product line made significant progress during the quarter on reducing its finished goods inventory levels. However, this negatively impacted earnings by $12 million compared to the first quarter of 2006 and by $7 million compared to the same period last year. "

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Press release from Cabot