A net profit of 988 million euros, up by 73%

Leading provider of innovative solutions in the fields of polyolefins and base chemicals, Borealis has announced a net profit of 242 million euros for the fourth quarter of 2015, compared to 141 million euros in the same quarter of 2014. For the full year 2015 the company recorded a net profit of 988 million euros, compared to 571 million euros in 2014. The improved result over 2014 was driven by overall stronger margins in the polyolefin business, a higher contribution from the base chemicals business and an improved contribution from Borouge following the successful start-up of the Borouge 3 project.

Borouge, Borealis' joint venture with the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company in Abu Dhabi, continued the successful start-up of its mega project Borouge 3 throughout the year 2015. In April, Borouge successfully started-up the low density polyethylene plant. Now the cracker and all of the five polyolefin plants are running as planned. The only remaining unit to be started-up is the cross-linked polyethylene plant which will complete the start-up of the Borouge 3 mega project. Once fully ramped up, Borouge 3 will deliver an additional 2.5 million tons of capacity, bringing the total Borouge capacity to 4.5 million tons, thus making Borouge the biggest integrated polyolefin complex in the world. Borealis and Borouge together will then have approximately 8 million tons of polyolefin capacity.

“2015 was a very good year financially for Borealis where we achieved an extraordinary record result improving further on the record result realised in 2014. However, work continues to improve on our safety and operational reliability”, commented Mark Garrett, Borealis CEO. “2015 saw historically high integrated polyolefin industry margins. Despite lower feedstock costs, polyolefin prices did not retreat to the same extent driven by a tight market as a result of solid demand combined with a supply shortfall, in particular resulting from unplanned production stops. In addition, imports of polyolefins into Europe have been uncompetitive following the weakening of the Euro. We expect this situation to ease in 2016, but we believe the integrated polyolefin industry margin will be solid. Overall, Borealis expects to see a solid, albeit  lower profitability in 2016 compared to 2015, as the strategy of growing the three profit centres polyolefins, base chemicals and Borouge contributes to ensure the competitiveness and resilience of the company”, he added.