BOSTON—Confidence is carrying Cabot Corp. into the second half of its 2024 fiscal year, thanks in part to what it called strong performance across both its reinforcement materials and performance chemicals segments.
The Boston-based company posted half-year sales of around $1.98 billion, with the second quarter contributing $1.02 billion. Both are down slightly from 2023 when sales were $1.99 billion for the half and $1.03 billion for the second quarter.
Net income for the six-month period was $134 million, up about $5 million year over year.
EBIT for the first half came in at $236 million—an improvement of $94 million year over year—while second-quarter EBIT improved by $32 million year over year to $142 million.
"I am very pleased with the results in the second quarter and the tremendous efforts the Cabot team executed against what is still a challenging macro-economic backdrop," Cabot CEO Sean Keohane told investors during an earnings call May 7.
Reinforcement Materials posted a quarterly EBIT of $149 million, a $27 million year-over-year increase. Sales for the segment came in at $676 million for the quarter—up $4 million year over year.
For the six months ended March 31, the segment recorded around $1.32 billion in sales, on par with the first half of 2023.
Globally, Reinforcement Materials volumes increased 6 percent year over year for the three months ended March 31. This performance was bolstered by a 21-percent increase in Asia. Europe, meanwhile saw a 4-percent increase in volume, while the Americas volumes dropped by 8 percent.
"The outlook for this business remains strong," Keohane said, "driven by our leading global market division, the long-term resilience of the replacement tire market, favorable regional supply and demand dynamics, and outstanding execution across the segment."
Performance Chemicals, meanwhile, saw second-quarter EBIT increase by $3 million year over year to $31 million, something Cabot attributed to 6 percent higher volumes that were driven by the specialty carbons and specialty compounds product lines.
Sales for Performance Chemicals came in at $311 million for the quarter and $596 million for the six-month period. Both were down slightly—$15 million and $16 million, respectively—year over year.
"Demand in the segment appears to have generally stabilized and the effects of destocking have ended," Keohane said. "While we did see some early signs of improvement in demand, particularly in the automotive, infrastructure applications and semiconductor applications, we remain cautious that these demand trends will further strengthen through the year."
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