Q2 2024 Wacker Chemie AG Earnings Call Transcript
Key Points
- Wacker Chemie AG (WKCMF) reported a sequential improvement in chemicals EBITDA, which came in at EUR 149 million, up 17% year over year.
- The company successfully completed a planned turnaround in silicones ahead of schedule, leading to positive demand for specialty silicones.
- The new mRNA facility in Halle was completed ahead of time, tripling the site's capacity and securing a standby fee until 2029.
- Polysilicon EBITDA increased to EUR 55 million from EUR 43 million in the previous quarter, supported by lower energy costs.
- Wacker Chemie AG (WKCMF) confirmed its full-year guidance, expecting EBITDA to be in the upper half of the EUR 600 million to EUR 800 million range.
- Group sales were down 16% year over year, coming in at EUR 1.5 billion.
- Second-quarter group EBITDA was EUR 160 million, 37% lower year over year.
- The other segment incurred higher costs, with a negative EBITDA of EUR 45 million in the second quarter.
- Polysilicon sales declined 23% quarter over quarter due to significantly lower solar-grade volumes.
- The market for solar-grade polysilicon outside China is experiencing uncertainty due to anti-dumping and countervailing duties investigations in the US.
Welcome to the Wacker Chemie AG conference call on the 2024 second-quarter results. Dr. Christian Hartel, our CEO; and Dr. Tobias Ohler, our CFO, will take you through our prepared slides momentarily.
The press release, our IR presentation, and detailed financial tables are available on our webpage under the caption Investor Relations. Please note that management's comments during this call include forward-looking statements involving risks and uncertainties. We encourage you to review the Safe Harbor statement in today's press release, the presentation, and our 2023 annual report regarding risk factors. All documents mentioned are available on our website. Chris?
Welcome, everyone. Second quarter of 2024 saw a good result in chemicals and polysilicon and a successful cloud startup in biosolutions. While overall market conditions remain challenging and some end markets, such as
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