Wacker looks forward to sales and earnings growth for 2018

As previously reported, Wacker Chemie AG met or surpassed its own projections for all its performance indicators in FY2017.

On presenting its annual report, the Munich-based chemical company announced that Group sales reached €4.92bn, up 6% yr-on-yr (2016: €4.63bn).

The rise was mainly due to higher volumes in chemicals and in polysilicon.

As a result, Wacker more than compensated both for negative currency effects due to the euro’s strength against the US dollar and for prices that, on balance, were somewhat lower.

Income from continuing operations climbed 40% in 2017 to €250.1M (2016: €178.1M).

The Group’s net income for the year was €884.8M (2016: €189.3M).

It included €634.7M in income from discontinued operations from Q1 2017.

This amount comprised both the gain associated with the deconsolidation of Siltronic AG as a Wacker Group segment and Siltronic’s net income in the first quarter of 2017.

In 2018, Wacker intends to continue the good performance of last year, despite strong currency headwinds.

Currency effects and amendments to accounting standards are expected to reduce sales by an amount in the low-triple-digit millions.

Nonetheless, Wacker aims to lift its full-year sales by a low-single-digit percentage.