Victrex (VCT) is selling record quantities of its lightweight PEEK polymer despite the ongoing recession in Europe, which is easily its biggest market, and the order book for October is "encouraging".
Seven per cent growth in the second half to 1,527 tonnes had full-year volumes at a record 2,904 tonnes. A third plant, now being built at a cost of £90m, will increase capacity by over two-thirds to more than 7,000 tonnes a year in 2015 when, hopefully, conditions will have improved. Belgium’s Solvay, one of only two European competitors, has already announced a 70 per cent increase in capacity at its Panoli site in India to cope with increased demand for the super-strength plastic – half of that is already online. Uncertainty over US healthcare reform meant customers spent the summer destocking, snuffing out any growth in sales at Victrex’s Invibio medical device unit – flat at £50.5m – but that was the only real negative.
