While Semperit’s (Vienna / Austria; www.semperit.at) industrial division is ailing under the economic downturn from the coronavirus pandemic, as with large parts of the global plastics industry, the Austrian elastomer specialist’s medical business is thriving. Strong demand for medical gloves is boosting price levels, the company said. The financial performance of Semperit’s medical division is expected to be significantly higher than in the previous year, more than compensating for the losses in its industrial division. The group’s EBITDA in 2020 is looking to be much higher than the previous year’s figure of EUR 67.8m. Semperit also plans to adjust the valuation of its assets at the time of its half-year report. In anticipation of the new valuation, the Austrian company is expecting EBIT to reach EUR 110-160m in 2020 against minus EUR 16.5m last year.

Semperit is still assuming that the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic will be “limitedly sustainable.” The company noted that it is sticking to the decision to focus on its industrial rubber business in the future regardless of the recent developments that have arisen due to the coronavirus crisis.

To support health workers in Austria, the elastomer specialist in March had more than 60m disposable gloves flown in from Malaysia (see Plasteurope.com of 31.03.2020).