Chemours reported a loss of $18 million in the second quarter as the company’s CEO reported progress in improving the performance of the company that was spun off from DuPont a little more than a year ago.
Chemours shares were up 2 percent in trading on Monday.
Chemours CEO Mark Vergnano said, “Our second quarter results reflect our focused execution against our Five-Point Transformation Plan and our drive to deliver on our commitments to all our stakeholders. We have just celebrated our first anniversary as a public company, and we are pleased with the progress we have made in that time to strengthen our business model, reduce costs, and optimize our company portfolio.”
Vergnano continued, “At this point, we have completed the strategic review of our Chemical Solutions portfolio, closed the sale of our Sulfur business for approximately $325 million and announced the sale of our Clean and Disinfect business for $230 million. We began commercial production at our new TiO2 plant in Altamira, Mexico and have been encouraged by improvement in the titanium technologies segment with increasing TiO2 prices. Overall, I am very pleased that we have delivered approximately $100 million in cost reductions, improved margins, improved our working capital, streamlined our portfolio and modestly improved our balance sheet in the first half of 2016.”
Second quarter net sales were $1.4 billion, a decrease of 8 percent from $1.5 billion in the prior-year quarter. The second quarter net loss was $18 million, unchanged from the pro forma loss a year earlier.
Adjusted EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes and depreciation) for the second quarter was $187 million versus $127 million in the prior-year quarter. Improved profitability in Fluoroproducts and cost reductions throughout the company were partially offset by lower average prices in Titanium Technologies and Chemical Solutions.
Company cost cutting efforts included the closing of the Edgemoor titanium dioxide production site near Wilmington last year.
