
Fuchs, an independent developer of pioneering lubricant solutions, has announced strong results for the first half of the year.
Fuchs SE’s chairman of the executive board, Stefan Fuchs, said that the company’s earnings before interest and tax (EBIT) was €218 million during this period, a rise of 9% on the previous year, despite sales revenues declining by 3% due to price and currency effects.
All three regions saw EBIT growth, with North and South America showing a particularly impressive 20% increase.
The Chinese business continued to recover in the Asia-Pacific region, and all the sub-regions of Europe, Middle East and Africa also saw earnings growth.
Looking to the future, Fuchs said that the company has:
“…a positive outlook for the second half of the year and are particularly pleased that the acquisition of the LUBCON Group means that new colleagues will support our team in the area of specialty lubricants. We confirm our outlook and expect EBIT of around EUR 430 million for the full year.”
Based on economic outlooks from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) that predict a 3.2% global economic growth rate and a lower level of 0.2% for Germany, Fuchs forecast an EBIT of €430 million for the full year.
Fuchs said the price of raw materials continues to be a particular concern, as does uncertain economic developments, so the environment in which it operates continues to present challenges. Nevertheless, Fuchs said its financial basis and global positioning was still strong, and it continues to target earnings growth.