France’s Arkema (Colombes; www.arkema.com) said fourth-quarter sales rose 25.9% year-on-year to EUR 2.5 bn amidst increased demand for solutions with high technological content and environment friendliness.

Market conditions in upstream acrylics were also favourable, the company said. Volume sales fell slightly due to the lack of availability of key raw materials in the Adhesive Solutions segment and weaker demand for products from the Coating Solutions business.

EBITDA grew 44.3% to EUR 417 mn thanks to price increases that offset the costs of higher raw materials, energy, and logistics.

For 2021, EBITDA expanded 46.1% to EUR 1.7 bn to beat the company target of EUR 1.4 bn (see Plasteurope.com of 02.09.2021). Sales accelerated 20.7% to EUR 9.5 bn.

Despite a decline in volumes, higher selling prices made Coating Solutions the star performer, with quarterly sales jumping sharply by 48.3% to EUR 725 mn and EBITDA soaring 76.8% to EUR 122 mn.

Sales from Adhesive Solutions operations rose 13.3% to EUR 580 mn, but EBITDA was flat at EUR 69 mn.

Advanced Materials sales improved more than a third to EUR 874 mn due to high demand for batteries, bio-based materials, sports, and water filtration products. EBITDA surged 36.6% to EUR 168 mn.

The resin maker said earlier this year that it plans to increase the expansion of its PVDF production in China (see Plasteurope.com of 04.02.2022)