Sales of Altri’s pulp rise by 4% in 2019

No exercício de 2019, a Altri produziu 1.099 mil toneladas de pastas, tendo vendido 1.084 mil toneladas, o que corresponde a um crescimento, em termos de volume, de 4% face aos números reportados em 2018.

In 2019, the average market price of paper pulp (BHKP) was 764.9 €/t, which represents a 13% drop from the average price recorded in 2018. The less favourable environment which prevailed was reflected in the group’s final result, despite its good performance in terms of pulp produced and volume sold.

Altri Group’s total income in the 2019 financial year stood at 753.5 million euros, which is about 4% lower than that of 2018, with total income associated with its pulp production units accounting for 667 million euros. In terms of volume, 2019’s pulp sales grew by 4%, totalling 1,084 thousand tons of pulp.

Of this total tonnage, 995.3 thousand tons related to paper pulp (BHKP) and around 88.5 thousand tons were dissolving wood pulp (DWP). Altri Group’s consolidated net result for the 2019 fiscal year was 100.8 million euros.

€530 Million in exports

Exports from Altri’s pulp production units last year stood at around 530 million euros. The Group’s main destination market is Europe – not including Portugal – which represents around 68% of its total sales, i.e. around 741 thousandtons.

Portugal accounted for 12% of sales, and the Asian market represented around 9% of the amount of pulp sold.

Altri’s main customer base is producers of tissue paper, with the lion’s share of 52%, followed by producers of speciality papers and producers of printing and writing paper, with market shares of 14% and 22% respectively. Viscose filament yarn producers – consumers of DWP – represent around 9% of sales.

EBITDA of €233.1 million

Total costs relating to 2019 rose to around 520.4 million euros, which corresponds to a growth of around 5.7% on the previous year’s total costs. It must be pointed out, that as in 2018, biological assets were assessed at fair value during the financial year under analysis, which led to an increase in asset value of around 1.9 million euros.

The EBITDA for 2019 stood at 233.1 million euros – a year-on-year fall of around 20%, with the margin at 30.9%.

The EBIT recorded in 2019 was 157.8 million euros, representing a drop of around 32% on the previous year. It should also be emphasised that the total net investment (Capex) made during the 2019 financial year by the Group’s units stood at 70 million euros.