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Deceuninck grows in US and Turkey to boost sales and profits


Belgian profiles extruder Deceuninck posted improved sales and profitability for 2016, on the back of strong perfor- mances in the US and Turkey. Sales for the year rose 4%


to close just short of €671 million. At the same time, profit – in the form of REBITDA – leapt ahead by more than 16% to exceed €65m. This resulted in net profit of €21m – nearly 60% ahead of the previous year. Sales by geography


generally positive, though the phase-out of low margin products – and a decline in the


Borealis profits up by 11%


Borealis has announced a net profit of €1.1bn in 2016 – an 11% rise compared to the previous year. The improved result was


driven by overall stronger margins in the polyolefins business and an improved contribution from Borouge – following the successful completion of the Borouge 3 project in the Middle East. “Whilst we do not expect


to repeat the 2016 result in 2017, we still expect 2017 to be a very solid year,” said Mark Garrett, CEO. Further ahead, Borouge is building a new polypro- pylene plant, dubbed ‘PP5’. ❙ www.borealisgroup.com


www.pipeandprofile.com


Russian market – caused a drop of nearly 5% in the Central and Eastern Europe region, with sales falling to €162m. Western Europe saw a 3.5%


boost to nearly €177m, driven by strong performances in The Netherlands, Italy and the UK. However, the recent weaken- ing of the UK currency helped to drag performance down. Other markets were more


buoyant. Turkey and emerging markets saw a rise of nearly 11%, to reach €214m. Depreciation of the Turkish lire was offset by price increases.


In 2016, Deceuninck built a


new factory in Menemen and expanded its Kartepe site. Both are expected to start producing product by the middle of this year. However, the company sounded a note of caution over the Turkish market. “Uncertainty in Turkey is


likely to remain high, but experts like IMF and OECD see continued growth,” said Francis Van Eeckhout, CEO. “We will carefully monitor the recent rise in raw material prices and take appropriate action.”


And, in North America, a dip in the decking business was more than compensated for by strong growth in other areas – leading to an overall growth above 6%, to nearly €119m. Deceuninck also began


operations from a new site in Fernley, Nevada, which will boost its presence on the west coast, it said. “Assuming no material


macro-economic disturbance in our key regions, growth is expected to continue through- out 2017,” said Van Eeckhout. ❙ www.deceuninck.com


Uponor breaks €1bn in sales


Net sales at Swedish pipe manufacturer Uponor exceed- ed €1 billion in 2016, thanks to a growth of nearly 5%. The company posted


revenues of nearly €1.1bn for 2016, equating to a profit of €91m – almost 20% ahead of the corresponding period in 2015.


Uponor did not provide


detailed figures for its different divisions, but said that each performed acceptably. “Building Solutions – Eu-


rope progressed well in its transformation,” said Jyri Luomakoski, president and CEO. “Its new setup will provide a firm foothold to be able to benefit from an anticipated recovery in the European building market.” He added that the equiva-


lent division in North America continued to be healthy – with a solid outlook – though operating profit did not grow as well as it did in 2015. At the same time, he said that Uponor Infra’s “compara- ble profitability developed well in 2016, showing that the transformation programme and the streamlining initiatives from previous years are bearing fruit”. The company added that, in 2016, its R&D expenditure exceeded €20 million the first time.


Late last year, the company made the decision to close PEX pipe production at its Mostoles plain in Spain and transfer it to Virsbo, Sweden. The company said that the move would reduce


March 2017 | PIPE & PROFILE EXTRUSION 5


costs in supply chain and production operations. ❙ www.uponor.com


Luomakoski: “Building Solutions Europe in good position to benefit from upturn in building market”


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