Hexpol publishes annual report

ERJ staff report (DS)

Stockholm - Hexpol's annual report for 2011 has been published on the company website and is under distribution to the Group's shareholders.

Georg Brunstam, Hexpol's President and CEO, comments the year in the annual report, “2011 was the best year ever - so far, for Hexpol Group. Our sales rose by a healthy 89 percent to 7,197 MSEK (3,798). We increased our earnings per share by 72 percent to 18.63 SEK (10.83). Operating profit rose sharply to 895 MSEK (460). Our operating cash flow remained strong, as previous years, amounting to healthy 911 MSEK (506).”

The acquisition of the Excel Polymers group in November 2012 took group revenues to almost SEK 7200 million, while the former Hexpol operations contributed just SEK 3800 million in the year.

Hexpol said its compounding operations generated sales of SEK 6450 million, up from SEK 3080 million in 2010 and comprises 19 separate operating units spread around the world. The report gives details of the capacity at each of the different units. The company claims a total capacity for polymer compounding of some 550,000 tonnes annually.

The report says that small and medium-sized companies face financial pressures which leads them to outsource the compounding activity and Hexpol is well-placed to take advantage of this trend. Hexpol said that in Europe 80 percent of the compounds it sells are based on Hexpol recipes, with the remainder being based on customer recipes.

Hexpol said it is bringing a new 90-litre mixer on stream at its facility in Qingdao, China in the early months of 2012, which will add a further 8000 tonnes of capacity annually. The company said it's Qingdao operation reached ful capacity in December 2011, with over 1000 tonnes mixed in that month. This serves a radius of some 1000 km around the Qingdao base, but Hexpol is expanding that to 2000 km. Currently 74 percent of Hexpol Qingdao's output is focussed on the automotive segment.

The report says the market for TPE compounds is undergoing strong growth in industrial, medical and automotive applications.

This is an external link and should open in a new window. If the window does not appear, please check your pop-up blocking software. ERJ is not responsible for the content of external sites.

Press release from Hexpol

Download annual report from Hexpol