PolyOne reports surge in second-quarter profit

ERJ staff report (Dan Shingler, Crain's Cleveland Business)

Avon Lake, Ohio -- PolyOne Corp. said that its second-quarter sales and profit were up sharply, driven by higher prices for its plastics that pumped up its margins and new markets that helped it sustain and grow sales.

In spite of a headwind caused by a weaker euro that the company said slightly affected its sales, Avon Lake-based PolyOne reported sales were up 40 percent, from $496.5 million in the second quarter of 2009 to $629.9 million for the same quarter in 2010. Volume was up 27 percent, and higher prices made up the rest of the sales increase, the company reported.

For the quarter, PolyOne reported earnings of $45.7 million, compared with a loss of $1.9 million during the same period in 2009.

“I am particularly pleased with these results when you consider demand from two of our key end markets, housing and auto, remains near historic lows,” PolyOne CEO Stephen Newlin said in a statement. “Over the last three years we have diversified our portfolio by growing our business in highly attractive and less cyclical end markets such as health care, consumer products and packaging.

“In fact, despite continuing trough-like demand conditions in housing and auto, our quarterly earnings per share have nearly doubled from pre-recession levels (second quarter 2008),” Newlin said.

Going forward, the company said it expects its traditional core markets to come back to more normal levels. The company noted that the current 2010 estimates calling for 650,000 housing starts and vehicle production of 11.5 million units in the US are well below historic norms-and that autos are not even being built as fast as they are being scrapped around the country.

“Demographic projections support returning to historic average levels of housing starts and auto sales at some point in the future. We view an eventual recovery in these end markets as upside to our current record-setting performance,” Newlin said.

From Rubber & Plastics News (A Crain publication)

Press release from Polyone