Peter Huntsman, president and CEO of family-run chemical company Huntsman (Salt Lake City, Utah / USA; www.huntsman.com), described the fourth quarter of 2008 as “perhaps the most challenging in the history of our industry” as the company announced an operating loss of USD 119m (EUR 94m) in the period, compared with a profit of USD 154m in the fourth quarter of 2007. Sales in the quarter were USD 2.05 bn, down from USD 2.50 bn in 2007. Full year operating profit was USD 165m, compared with USD 537m in 2007, on sales up 6% at USD 10.2 bn. The company was spared reporting an operating loss for the year thanks to the USD 1 bn cash settlement paid by Hexion Specialty Chemicals (Columbus, Ohio / USA; www.hexion.com) as compensation for its failure to acquire Huntsman – see Plasteurope.com of 16.12.2008.

The company’s largest division, polyurethanes, saw fourth quarter sales fall to USD 796m from USD 989m in the same period in 2007, driven by a 13% drop in volume sales of MDI. Full year PU sales increased by 6% to EUR 4.05 bn. Fourth quarter earnings in the division were USD 13m (USD 142m in Q4 2007), while annual earnings fell by 35% to USD 382m.

e-Service:
Huntsman’s press release on its fourth quarter and full year results for 2008 with segment report as a PDF document (155 KB)