First-quarter report 2022 (January - March 2022) of the EMS Group

(Ad hoc announcement pursuant to article 53 Listing Rule SIX)

EMS Group:

  • Positive course of business
  • Successful new business with innovative specialties
  • Sales-price adjustments due to strongly rising energy costs and raw material prices
  • Slowing global economy

First-quarter report 2022 (January - March 2022) of the EMS Group

(Ad hoc announcement pursuant to article 53 Listing Rule SIX)

EMS Group:

  • Positive course of business
  • Successful new business with innovative specialties
  • Sales-price adjustments due to strongly rising energy costs and raw material prices
  • Slowing global economy
27.04.2022 

Course of Business January - March 2022

The EMS Group, with its companies combined in the EMS-CHEMIE HOLDING AG and globally active in the business areas High Performance Polymers and Specialty Chemicals, increased net sales in the first three months of 2022 by 12.7% compared to the previous year to reach CHF 638 million (566). In local currencies net sales exceeded those of the previous year by 15.0%.

As expected, the first quarter of 2022 started with a positive consumer mood and high demand in all customer segments. After the slump caused by COVID-19, consumer spending was high, especially in China and the USA.

In the meantime, the economic risks anticipated by EMS at the start of the year have materialized. The international supply chain bottlenecks already seen in the past year became more accentuated. In the global automotive industry, the lack of semiconductors continued to prevent recovery. The Ukraine conflict caused additional supply bottlenecks in Europe. In China, rigorous lockdown measures also forced the automotive plants to interrupt production.  

Major uncertainty about future energy supplies triggered severe increases in the already high energy prices, leading to a substantial boost in chemical raw material prices. These are affecting the whole value chain right up to consumer level and are further driving up the already extraordinarily high inflation rates in the USA and Europe.

For EMS, the last months have shown a pleasing course of business and a good order situation. Substantial innovative new business and growth in all regions could be achieved. The substantially higher raw material and logistics costs made sales price increases at customers inevitable. Supply reliability of all EMS companies worldwide is guaranteed. In these times of economic instability, EMS will continue to pursue its proven speciality growth strategy. R&D projects and expansion plans for new business will be further followed. Furthermore, EMS is in a good position to rapidly exploit market opportunities.

For 2022, EMS continues to expect net sales and net operating income (EBIT) slightly above previous year.

The complete first-quarter report can be downloaded via the following link: