UK foam producer Zotefoams (Croydon; www.zotefoams.com) is predicting sales growth of around 10% (on a constant currency basis) for the first six months of this year. In a trading update released in early July, Zotefoams said it was expecting the high performance products (HPP) business to see a growth in sales of more than 20% as it continued to build on the very strong performance seen in 2014. Revenue from MuCell Extrusion, the company’s licensing arm, was expected to increase by about 40% (for 2014 figures see Plasteurope.com of 01.09.2014).

A 6% increase in sales of polyolefin foams was expected to push revenue up by around 8% on a constant currency basis. All three business units have strong forward order books, Zotefoams said.

The cost of its major raw material, LDPE, has been at a similar average euro price in the first half of this year compared with the first half of 2014, although the company noted that prices had risen sharply in recent months. Zotefoams said that the weaker euro has benefited raw materials purchases and US dollar sales have benefited from a stronger dollar. However, this has been more than offset by the impact of the euro on its European sales and particularly on the unhedged translational impact on its balance sheet.

Zotefoams added that its capacity expansion in Walton, Kentucky / USA is proceeding to schedule. The company expects to announce its half-year interim results on 4 August 2015.