Navigator profits up 57%

The Portuguese paper company Navigator closed 2021 with sales close to €1.6Bn, up 15% on the previous year.

Despite an increase in costs, profits grew 57% and the company will pay out dividends of €14.06 cents per share.
The company’s profits increased 57% on 2020, to €171.4 million. It was a result that benefitted from an improvement in EBITDA which increased to €354.7 million.
Taking into account the results, the board will propose that the General Assembly distribute an additional dividend of €14.06 per share, to a total amount of €100 million.
“The economic recovery that boosted a recovery in paper consumption, together with an improved balance between supply and demand in the United States, Europe, and in the MENA region enabled the sector to do well in 2021, particularly Navigator.
The margin also improved slightly with a ratio between EBITDA and sales rising from 20.6% to 22.2% despite increases in the costs of raw materials and logistics (particularly shipping costs) and energy costs which were the biggest challenges Navigator faced in 2021.
But it hasn’t been all paper roses for Navigator after the United States’s Department of Commerce decided last month to extend its anti-dumping case against Navigator for a further five years.
The anti-dumping case against Navigator hails from 2016. Last year a process was started called ‘sunset review’ to decide if the case should closed or maintained. The decision was to remain in place.
“In January 2022, the US authorities decided to maintain the anti-dumping process (against Navigator) for five more years on UWF paper (office and writing paper) imported into the United States, including imports from Portugal, with Navigator actively involved in the process”.
The anti-dumping case against Navigator has been going on for several years, (despite) Navigator winning several cases in court.
Dumping is when a company exports a product at a price that is lower in the foreign importing market than the price in the exporter’s domestic market. Although it enables consumers in a country — in this case the US – to access goods at a cheaper price, it can damage the local market of the importing country and its producers of similar products. The Navigator Company, based at Figueira da Foz, used to be called Portucel-Soporcel.