Gurit has reported preliminary and unaudited net sales of CHF425.3 million for 2018, an increase of 18% in reported Swiss francs and 15.7% growth on a currency adjusted basis compared to CHF 360.5 million in 2017. For continued operations, excluding Composite Components, sales growth has been 18.5%, the company added.
In Composite Materials wind material demand grew by 3.1% in 2018 over 2017 in reported Swiss Francs and could raise its sales in the second half of 2018 by 13% versus the first half. Demand in Europe and especially North America was reportedly good, while in China and India wind industry demand was soft. The marine superyacht and leisure markets had healthy growth as did Industrial markets, mainly supported by demand in North America and Europe. In total, net sales in Composite Materials increased by 6.1% (currency-adjusted: 4.1%) year-on-year from CHF 198.9 million in 2017 to CHF 211.1 million in 2018.
The company’s newly acquired JSB business unit, now Gurit Kitting, contributed CHF 28.9 million to the 2018 net sales for a period of 2.5 months since the acquisition in mid-October 2018.
Gurit Tooling reported a net sales increase of by 29.1% (currency-adjusted: 27.0%) to CHF 118.5 million in 2018 compared to net sales of CHF 91.8 million in 2017 while Aerospace net sales were CHF 49.9 million, an increase of 5% (currency adjusted 2.6%).
Composite Components reported net sales of CHF 16.9 million in 2018. compared to net sales of CHF 22.3 million in 2017. This represents a sharp decrease of 24% in reported Swiss francs (-26.5% on a currency-adjusted basis). Gurit says that this is due to an abrupt demand decline in Gurit’s biggest car part volume program in the first six months and the slow start-up’s of several new programs in the second half year of 2018 caused this sales reduction versus 2017. The company has decided to re-structure and divest its Composite Components business.
This story uses material from Gurit,with editorial changes made by Materials Today. The views expressed in this article do not necessarily represent those of Elsevier.