Results of Oerlikon Manmade Fibers business
The filaments equipment market’s downward trend persisted, as expected, in the second quarter, impacting the Segment’s performance substantially. The promising signs noted in the staple fibres and plant engineering (CP, tape lines, nonwovens) businesses in the first quarter continued into the second quarter. The Segment succeeded in taking advantage of this and grew its business in those markets, thereby mitigating some of the downturn in the filaments market. Subsequently, orders were more than one-third lower, and sales declined by more than half year-on-year
Due to the lower top line and product mix, EBITDA fell considerably to minus CHF 2 million and the margin to a negative 1.6 %. EBIT for Q2 2016 stood at minus CHF 6 million (Q2 2015: CHF 32 million).
In the second quarter, the Segment increased the ratio of its service business to 21.3 % of total Segment sales (Q2 2015: 10.5 %). In relation to the significantly lower sales, the improvement in the share of services underscores the Segment’s efforts in increasing its services business and making it more resilient to market developments. The Segment will continue to focus on implementing its restructuring measures and developing its business in services and other markets.
The increase in the staple fibre business in particular also resulted in the Segment restoring some of Oerlikon Neumag’s operations to full capacity to meet customer demands. Based on the positive trend outside of Chinese filament equipment market and depending on the development of specific projects, the Segment envisages that it might see some upturn in business in the second half of the year.
Group’s results and outlook
The developments on the global economic and geopolitical scene and the ensuing impact on markets since the beginning of the year have been challenging and are expected to remain so. However, based on the company’s performance in the first half of 2016 and the initial positive signals in surface solutions, non-filaments and drive systems businesses, Oerlikon confirms its outlook for 2016. The Group will continue to focus on safeguarding its operating profitability, and expects to deliver order intake and sales between CHF 2.3 billion and CHF 2.5 billion and an EBITDA margin in the mid-teens for the full year 2016.