High Performance Polymers and Specialty Chemicals producer EMS Group’s net sales rose by 6.7% in the first 9 months of 2017 and reached about US$ 1630 as compared to compared to US$ 1528 in the previous year. This rise in sales has been due to strong increase in the prices of raw material prices.

Since the beginning of the year, supply shortages have caused raw material prices to increase strongly and made sales price increases unavoidable. In August, hurricane Harvey hit the nerve center of the U.S. chemical industry, causing significant production shutdowns followed by shortages in the downstream supply chain worldwide. As a consequence, EMS is focusing on a stable raw material supply in order to ensure reliable delivery to customers.

As was expected, in 2017, the global economy developed in a restrained way. Growth of the worldwide automotive industry was significantly slower than in the previous year. The major automotive market China showed modest growth. Automotive production in the USA dropped significantly compared to previous year. The European automotive industry, on the other hand, picked up slightly. EMS was able to achieve over-proportional growth with innovative new business. For the whole year 2017, EMS is expecting that its net sales and net operating income (EBIT) will be slightly higher than the previous year.