2023 Sales Remain Stable At Cellulose Fibre Producer Lenzing
Taking persistently low fibre prices into consideration, revenue at Lenzing remained comparatively stable at €2.52 billion in 2023 compared with €2.57 billion in 2022.
“Very subdued demand on the one hand and the continued rise in raw material and energy costs on the other, exerted a strongly negative impact on the earnings,” the producer of cellulosic fibres said.
“The largely absent recovery in the textile and clothing industry had a negative impact across the entire sector,” the Austrian company added in a press release.
However, earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) rose 25.4 percent year-on-year to reach €303.3 million in the reporting year.
Earnings before interest and tax (EBIT) stood at a negative €476.4 million in 2023 as against €16.5 million in its previous year.
According to Lenzing, this was mainly due to non-cash impairment losses of €464.9 million as a consequence of the ongoing uncertainties in the economic environment and higher discount rates.
Loss after tax amounted to €593 million in the reporting year versus loss after tax of 37.2 million in 2022 and loss per share stood at €20.02 vis-à-vis €2.75 in 2022.
“The anticipated recovery of markets relevant to the Lenzing Group has failed to materialise to date,” Stephan Sielaff, Chief Executive Officer of the Lenzing Group said.
“Subdued demand and the still sharply increased raw material and energy costs have led to a result in 2023 that we are not satisfied with,” he noted.
“This makes the measures we have taken decisively and at an early stage to keep Lenzing on track and further boost its resilience to crises all the more significant,” Sielaff observed.
