The specialty chemical company, Clariant, recently announced that the company’s sales had increased by 3% and its operating cash flow improved to CHF 208 million, compared to CHF 65 million in the first half of 2015. The net income was CHF 128 million.
The growth was the strongest in Latin America, where sales grew by 10% in local currency. Year-on-year sales in the Middle East and Africa went up 7% in local currencies. Meanwhile, North America saw a decline of 2%, Asia grew 2% and Europe increased by 1%.
“Clariant has considerably expanded operating cash flow and also significantly improved its profitability in the first half of the year,” said CEO Hariolf Kottmann. ”Our good business performance was primarily achieved by means of a continued shift to high margin specialties, the impact of the differentiated steering in Plastics & Coatings as well as good cost management. For 2016, we are on track to achieve our targets despite the continued challenging economic environment.”
