Sales at chemicals and plastics group Solvay (Brussels / Belgium; www.solvay.com) rose 1.3% to EUR 10.26 bn in 2018, with increases of 3.3% in volumes and 2.2% in prices partly eroded by currency headwinds and the negative impact from small divestments. The businesses sold were the polyolefin cross-linkable compounds in Advanced Materials and formulated resins businesses as well as part of the phosphorous business in Advanced Formulations – see Plasteurope.com of 04.04.2017, 12.06.2017 and 13.02.2018.

EBITDA fell 4.9% to EUR 1.93 bn. Excluding one-offs underlying EBITDA was unchanged at EUR 2.2 bn.

At Advanced Materials, sales of EUR 4.38 bn were up 0.4% driven by demand from aeronautics, automotive and healthcare for Solvay’s polymers and composites technologies. EBITDA was down 0.4% at EUR 1.19 bn.

Sales at Advanced Formulations climbed 3.1% with volumes rising across all segments. At Performance Chemicals, they advanced 1.5%.

Solvay expects EBITDA to grow modestly in 2019, with organic growth in the first quarter broadly flat year-on-year. Former CEO Jean-Pierre Clamadieu said Solvay will continue to focus on cost discipline. He left the company on 1 March 2019 and is succeeded by Ilham Kadri – see Plasteurope.com of 11.10.2018.

Solvay is selling its polyamide business to BASF (Ludwigshafen / Germany; www.basf.com) and in January 2019 the transaction received conditional approval from EU anti-trust authorities – see Plasteurope.com of 18.01.2019.