In Q1 2022, facing with complicated and grim situations at home and abroad as well as industrial challenges such as high energy cost, shortage of raw materials and transportation-related problems, Bluestar’s overseas listed companies operated with great tenacity and retained its competitive edge. Bluestar Adisseo’s revenue and net profit achieved double-digit growth, Bluestar Elkem embarked on a new journey with its best-ever performance, getting off to a good start in achieving the performance target of the year.

Bluestar Adisseo: By relying on its double-digit growth of revenue and net profit, it operates globally, acts as required by the times and achieves steady business growth

In Q1 2022, Bluestar Adisseo’ operating revenue reached RMB3.46 billion, up 15% year on year; its net profit attributed to the shareholders stood at RMB430 million, up 16% year on year; its gross profit was RMB1.11 billion, up 10% year on year. The excellent performance was credited to the double-digit sales growth in liquid methionine and solid methionine, particularly, the sales growth in liquid methionine hit 24%. Bluestar Adisseo’ digestive performance products and aquatic products saw strong double-digit sales growth. In Q1, the gross profit margin of its specialty products was 48%, reflecting the persistent efforts made by Adisseo to increase product price for offsetting the price hike of raw materials.

In terms of safety and sustainability, safety has been the top priority of Bluestar Adisseo’s management. It achieved a safety TRIR result in Q1 2022 at 0.45. Despite the challenges posed by the Covid-19 pandemic, all business operations of Adisseo continued. Bluestar Adisseo was awarded a silver rating by EcoVadis this year for its performance in sustainable development, which was also awarded in 2019.

In the aspect of progress in key projects, faced with the enormous challenges in supply and procurement of raw materials and energy, the production operations of Bluestar Adisseo’s European plants were fully sustained. Despite the impact of the Covid-19, its key projects in China were implemented as scheduled, its Nanjing liquid methionine plant phase 2 project (BANC2) went well on track with over six million hours without accident. The Nanjing Plant has successfully completed its maintenance & overhaul tasks, restarted operations, and entered the preparatory phase of trial operation of the new 360,000 t/a integrated production platform for the second half of 2022. The basic engineering design of the Chinese specialty product processing plant project is under way. Calysseo, a joint venture between Bluestar Adisseo and Calysta, is steadily advancing as planned the world’s first commercialized FreeKind single-cell protein production facility. The specialty product capacity expansion project went well, and Bluestar Adisseo’ effective integration of the acquisition of FRAmelco has been carried out. Bluestar Adisseo and Entobel joined forces on alternative insect protein development, demonstrating the open & innovative model of Bluestar Adisseo.

Bluestar Adisseo Vice Chairman and CEO Jean-Marc Dublanc said, “Globally, in spite of the changing macro market, by relying on our business resilience and leading edge built on decades of industry experience, as well as the positive results we have made over the past two years by taking rapid response measures, I believe that Bluestar Adisseo is capable of overcoming the unprecedented challenges. So far, all key projects and business activities have gone well in accordance with the planned schedule and budget.”

Elkem reaches high result in Q1 2022

Elkem’s total operating income for the first quarter 2022 was NOK 11,876 million, up 65% from the corresponding quarter last year. Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) amounted to NOK 3,875 million in the quarter, compared to NOK 1,231 million in the first quarter 2021. Earnings per share (EPS) was NOK 4.20 in the quarter. It is largely driven by strong performance in the Silicon Products and Carbon Solutions divisions.

The energy crisis in Europe has led to capacity curtailments among silicon and ferrosilicon producers. This has resulted in tight market conditions. In addition, the industry has been impacted by raw material constraints and transportation problems, resulting in general cost pressure and higher sales prices. Elkem’s integrated business model has ensured good access to critical raw materials and relatively stable costs.

Sustainability is an integrated part of Elkem’s business strategy. In the first quarter, Elkem was awarded the Platinum rating on sustainability transparency from EcoVadis, one of the world’s largest and most trusted providers of business sustainability ratings. This positions Elkem among the top 1% of the companies evaluated worldwide.

Specialization and innovation are key parts of Elkem’s strategy. In 2021, 26% of the sales by the Silicones division were generated from new products launched in past five years. The Silicones Xinghuo expansion project in China is expected to generate additional NOK 5 billion of sales from downstream specialization by 2030. To reach this target and adapt to the development trend of key industries, Elkem has resolved to invest approximately NOK 150 million in a flagship R&I center for the Asia-Pacific region in Shanghai.

Elkem partners with Hydro and Altor to accelerate the growth of Vianode, a producer of sustainable battery materials. Hydro and Altor will each have 30% ownership in Vianode, while Elkem will retain 40% ownership. Vianode has developed a range of synthetic graphite products for batteries with unique performance characteristics and produced with significantly lower CO2 emissions than today's standard materials.

“Elkem is starting 2022 at an all-time high, delivering our third consecutive quarter of record results, after a record year in 2021. Our first quarter earnings have been more than tripled from the same period last year. Elkem sees strong demand going into the second quarter, explained by strong market positions, and robust integrated value chains. We also continue to position Elkem for the future in line with our strategy,” says Helge Aasen, Elkem’s CEO.