Mercer International Inc. reported 1Q 2022 Operating EBITDA increased by approximately 88% to $154.5 million from $82.0 million in the same quarter of 2021 primarily due to higher sales realizations and pulp sales volumes and lower maintenance costs partially offset by higher per unit fiber and other production costs.
Total revenues in the 1Q 2022 increased by approximately 44% to a record $592.7 million from $412.7 million in the same quarter of 2021 primarily due to higher sales realizations, pulp sales volumes and energy sales.
In the 1Q 2022, net income was $88.9 million (or $1.35 per basic share and $1.34 per diluted share) compared to $5.9 million (or $0.09 per share) in the 1Q 2021 and net income of $74.5 million (or $1.13 per basic share and $1.12 per diluted share) in the 4Q 2021.
Segment Results: Pulp
Pulp revenues in the 1Q 2022 increased by approximately 41% to a record $446.9 million from $317.6 million in the same quarter of 2021 due to higher sales realizations and sales volumes. In the 1Q 2022, pulp segment operating income increased to $86.2 million from $25.3 million in the same quarter of 2021 as higher sales realizations and lower maintenance costs were partially offset by higher per unit fiber costs and other production costs.
Wood Products
In the 1Q 2022, our wood products segment had operating income of $40.5 million compared to $28.0 million in the same quarter of 2021 primarily due to higher sales realizations partially offset by higher per unit fiber costs.
David Gandossi, CEO, stated: “Our robust 1Q operating results were driven by strong sales volumes, increased pulp, lumber and energy pricing and our German mills’ sales of surplus energy into the spot market. These positive effects were only partially offset by higher costs for key inputs including fiber, energy and chemicals. Despite the impact of such cost inflation, we believe that our cost control measures will help mitigate the effect of increases going forward and we see our surplus energy sales as a strong hedge for higher energy prices.”
Mercer International Inc. is a global forest products company with operations in Germany, USA and Canada with consolidated annual production capacity of 2.3 million tonnes of pulp, 550 million board feet of lumber and 140 thousand m3 of CLT.
