Styrolution posted its its fourth quarter and fiscal year results for 2013, with a reported annual revenues of EUR 5.8 billion and EBITDA before special items of EUR 442 million. A key contributor to Styrolution’s strong showing in 2013 was the company’s synergy and integration programme, strong styrene monomer and polystyrene margins and an improved specialties business, the styrenics company said.

Throughout the year, Styrolution said that it benefit from increased margins in styrene monomer, the key feedstock in the production of styrenic polymers. The margin increase was mainly driven by tightened supply and demand fundamentals. Polystyrene was also a strong contributor to EBITDA due to margin improvement on the back of an optimized customer and product portfolio structure, especially in the US. Lower fixed costs and higher utilisation rates in Europe resulted from the closure of the polystyrene plant in Marl, Germany in October 2012. Specialties further contributed to overall profitability with solid margins and higher volumes resulting from increased focus on profitable market segments and applications, as well as optimizations to Styrolution’s specialties production infrastructure.

For this year, 2014, Styrolution is not expecting changes in overall market conditions It anticipates a modest recovery in the European economy and that the Americas and Asia should grow at comparable rates to 2013. Overall, Styrolution anticipates stable volume demand and margin development in 2014. In EMEA, the company assumes that the strong polystyrene margins seen in 2013 will decline in 2014; while a modest recovery in ABS margins in Asia, should also lead to a modest increase in ABS margins in EMEA and the Americas. The company expects that the record styrene monomer margins of 2013 will not be repeated in 2014, but anticipates cost improvements as a result of the turnaround of its Texas City asset.

Styrolution aims at achieving a slight increase in EBITDA compared to 2013, mainly driven by the few remaining benefits of the synergy programme. However, this target depends on global economic developments and is sensitive to price fluctuations of Styrolution’s main raw materials.