BERWYN, Pa.—Materials supplier Trinseo S.A. has seen second quarter earnings within its synthetic rubber unit drop 57.8 percent on the year to $13 million thanks to lower sales volumes and weak market conditions.
Sales fell 28 percent to $112 million in the three months to end of June thanks mainly to lower solution styrene butadiene rubber and emulsion styrene butadiene rubber sales volumes.
Volumes were down roughly 11 percent compared to the same quarter of 2018 and 18 percent on the year as a result of weakness in the global tire market, Trinseo said in its financial statement.
Frank Bozich, Trinseo president and CEO, said the decline in volumes reflected the decreases witnessed in the automotive industry.
"The global branded tire producers have been relatively flat, it's the commodity tire markets that have been hurt more significantly," he said during a conference call.
The "non-performance tire market," according to Bozich, is where Trinseo's ESBR technology would typically go.
The company's SSBR volume has been relatively stable and held up, as it is destined for performance tires, Bozich added.
"I'd say that we would see performance tires that utilize SSBR technology growing much faster than the broader tire market in the future," he said.