International. A 6% increase in first-quarter 2012 earnings was reported by the company AkzoNobel. According to the company, these results arose mainly as a result of the pricing strategies established to counteract the higher costs of raw materials.
However, EBITDA for this period was 3% lower than the previous year, mainly due to weakness in some end markets. Overall, commodity prices remain a challenge and the company expects the higher cost of oil to have an inflationary impact the rest of the year.
In other data reported by the company, it was announced that the decorative paints division achieved an increase in profits of 4%. In the field of high-performance coatings, profits increased by 11% while EBITDA increased by 15% compared to the same period last year. The chemicals division increased its revenue by 4%, although EBITDA showed a decrease of 2%.
Faced with these results, the company's CEO, Hans Wijers, stated that "we will continue to focus on improving our performance. Our global management efforts are yielding very good results as we continue to mitigate the adverse effects of rising raw material costs."
The official added that, although their sales volumes decreased slightly in a reflection of the volatile nature of economic conditions, they are satisfied with the results because, despite the above, they feel that their performance improvement program shows that they are taking the right steps to achieve the goals set for the medium term.
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