Wacker Group Q1 FY'13 sales rise 6%

“In view of the general situation, WACKER got off to a satisfactory start in 2013,” said CEO Rudolf Staudigl on Tuesday in Munich. “Solar-silicon prices remain a major challenge. Business continues to develop positively at our chemical divisions.

"Amid stable revenues, they achieved a higher overall margin than a year ago. While 2013 on the whole will not be an easy year for WACKER, we are well positioned –even in a difficult business environment – with a product portfolio covering almost every key industrial sector.”

Regions

Asia remained by far the most important market for WACKER’s products in Q1 2013. The Group generated first-quarter sales of €434.7 million in the region, down nearly 11 percent from a year ago (€487.1 million).

WACKER generated higher sales of chemical products in the quarter under review, yet this could not compensate for the slump in polysilicon and semiconductor-wafer prices. Compared with Q4 2012 (€404.1 million), though, WACKER increased its Asian sales by almost 8 percent.

In Europe, first-quarter sales totaled €256.7 million for the region – down 7 percent from a year ago (€276.3 million), but up 7 percent on the preceding quarter (€240.0 million). Polysilicon and semiconductor wafers performed below the levels of both Q1 and Q4 2012, mainly due to negative price trends. In contrast, the chemical divisions maintained the sales levels of last year’s first and fourth quarters, even though the prolonged winter strongly held back demand in the construction sector.

WACKER generated sales of €159.9 million in Germany (Q1 2012: €184.6 million) – a year-on-year decline of more than 13 percent. Here, too, the main reasons were solar-sector consolidation, lower wafer prices and the long winter. Thanks to higher silicone-product sales, WACKER surpassed its Q4 2012 figure (€156.2 million) by over 2 percent.

In the Americas, sales of €183.7 million were around 11 percent lower than a year ago (€207.3 million). Most of this decline stemmed from lower semiconductor-wafer sales. WACKER did, however, marginally improve on its Q4 2012 figure (€182.6 million).

In the markets combined under “Other Regions,” first-quarter sales totaled €41.3 million – up almost 6 percent on the prior-year period (€39.0 million), and around 21 percent on Q4 2012 (€34.2 million). Overall, WACKER generated some 85 percent of its first-quarter sales with customers outside Germany (Q1 2012: 84 percent).

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