(Reuters) – German chemicals maker Covestro on Monday raised its full-year earnings guidance for the third time this year, after reporting an 89% jump in third-quarter earnings.
The group, whose products are used to make car seats and phone cases, sees 2021 core earnings in range of 3 billion euros ($3.47 billion) to 3.2 billion euros, up from a previous forecast of 2.7 billion to 3.1 billion.
Covestro, whose main customers include the automotive industry and electronics manufacturers, bounced back quickly from the pandemic and has since been benefiting from product price mark-ups, despite higher energy and raw material costs.
“We’ve achieved significant increase in earnings and were at the upper end of the EBITDA guidance for the third quarter”, Chief Financial Officer Thomas Toepfer said in a statement, adding that the company expects the positive earnings trend to continue.
Covestro raised its 2021 return on capital employed (ROCE) outlook to a range of 19-21% from previous 16-20%. It cut its estimate for core volume growth to 10-12% from 10-15%, citing limited product availability.
The Leverkusen-based group beat third-quarter expectations as demand remained strong and high selling prices boosted sales.
It reported an 89% rise in earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) to 862 million euros, compared with 456 million euros a year earlier and an average 854 million euros forecast by analysts in a company-provided poll.
($1 = 0.8655 euros)
(Reporting by Federico Maccioni and Bartosz Dabrowski, editing by Jane Merriman)
