MUNICH—Wacker Chemie A.G. posted increased sales and net income for 2014.
The firm reported an 8 percent increase in sales to about $5.12 billion along with more than doubling net income to about $207 million compared to $6.67 million in 2013.
The firm attributed the sales increase to higher volumes across all divisions and improved polysilicon prices.
Wacker Silicones increased its sales by almost 4 percent to about $1.83 billion in 2014 compared to about $1.77 billion in 2013, primarily due to higher volumes and positive product-mix effects.
Earnings, however, were lower year-on-year, declining around 9 percent to about $222.2 million against about $243.8 million in 2013.
Wacker said the primary reason for the decline was a non-recurring effect from the previous year.
Some of Wacker's investment activities in 2014 were focused on production capacity expansion for polymer products and silicones.
The company built a new dispersible polymer powder production plant at the Burghausen site, Germany. It has an annual capacity of 50,000 tons and will come on stream in the next few weeks.
A plant for modified siloxanes in Burghausen was expanded as well. This intermediate for silicones is used in a variety of end products, such as silicone fluids, emulsions and resins.