COLOMBES, France—Arkema S.A. reported a 5.5 percent drop in sales, but a 15.8 percent increase in net income for the third quarter of 2016.
Sales came in at about $2 billion compared to $2.12 billion in 2015. Net income, however, increased to $119.8 million compared to $103.5 million in 2015.
Volumes improved by 2 percent overall thanks to improvement across all three divisions. However a negative 4.5 percent price effect combined with its divestment of Sunclear in the fourth quarter 2015 contributed to the overall sales decline, Arkema said in a Nov. 10 news release.
The firm's High Performance Materials segment experienced a 3.5 percent decrease in sales to $910.6 million despite increasing volumes by 1.2 percent. But a negative 2.5 percent price effect and a negative 1.4 percent currency translation effect attributed to the decrease in sales.
The increased sales volume was attributed by innovation within the Technical Polymers unit and by geographic expansion of its Bostik S.A. adhesives subsidiary. Bostik recently opened a new production plant for cementations products in Sweden and reached an agreement to acquire Den Braven, a leader in high performance sealants in Europe with estimated 2016 sales at about $382 million. Other developments in the segment include expansion for its specialty polyamides in both China and the U.S., projected to come online in 2017.
Its Coating Solutions segment's sales dropped 4.9 percent to $481.4 million, but volumes increased 4.6 percent compared to 2015 driven mainly by acrylic monomers. However a negative 8.9 percent price effect was the primary reason sales decreased.
Like with the other two segments, Industrial Specialties reported a decrease in sales to $602.3 million, a droop of 9 percent compared to 2015. Most of the decline was attributed to a negative 6.4 percent effect from the divestment of its Sunclear unit in 2015. Volumes increased by 1.1 percent, but that was offset by a negative 4.1 price effect.
Arkema employs about 19,000 with operations in nearly 50 countries.