By Mary de Wet
Wacker Chemie AG said high raw-material and energy costs were likely to eat into its profitability in 2022.
On commodity pressure:
“Wacker grew strongly in 2021, due to higher volumes and better prices across all four business divisions,” Chief Executive Christian Hartel said, though high raw-material and energy costs were a cause for concern.
Wacker expects strong headwinds in the remainder of 2022, due to sharp increases in energy and raw-material prices. “They would burden full-year Ebitda with costs of about EUR1.1 billion and have a marked impact on the further earnings trend in the current year,” Mr. Hartel said.
The chemical-product maker expects 2022 earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization toward the upper end of its projected range of EUR1.2 billion and EUR1.5 billion ($1.27 billion to $1.59 billion). In 2021, Ebitda was EUR1.54 billion.
On sustainability:
“We aim to achieve sales of over EUR10 billion by 2030, with an Ebitda margin of more than 20 percent,” Mr. Hartel said.
Sustainability would play a decisive role in this, he said. “Demand is constantly growing for sustainable products, which already comprised more than two-thirds of the portfolio … and were expected in the coming years to become an even stronger driver of Group sales and earnings,” Mr. Hartel said.
Write to Mary de Wet at mary.dewet@dowjones.com
