LUXEMBOURG—Orion Engineered Carbon has reported a decline in third-quarter earnings from its rubber carbon blacks business despite continued strong demand.
During the three months to Sept. 30, volumes declined by 5.1 percent, to 206,300 metric tons, compared to the same period last year. The declines were due to the closure of our manufacturing facility in France, the impact of hurricane Harvey and the ongoing conversion of capacity in South Korea, Orion said.
Nevertheless, third quarter revenues from the rubber blacks unit increased 8.3 percent to $206.8 million compared to the third quarter of 2016.
The gains were linked to pass-through of higher feedstock costs to customers on indexed price agreements, base price increases which offset the decline in volumes and negative foreign exchange rate translation effects.
Earnings (adjusted EBITDA) fell 9.1 percent year-on-year to $23.4 million, reflecting unfavorable feedstock mix, lower volumes partly related to hurricane Harvey and some negative foreign exchange rate translation impacts.