Novozymes Bioenergy division shows strong second quarter

Biotechnology company Novozymes has published its results for the first half of 2018. The Denmark headquartered company produces enzymes for biofuel production among its range of products.

The company reports an overall organic sales growth of 4% in the first half of the year, and net profit growth of +5%.

“Overall, I’m satisfied with our performance in the first half year”, said Peder Holk Nielsen in a statement announcing the results.

“Bioenergy performed very well, whereas Household Care was softer than expected. Our innovation pipeline is solid, and a stronger commercial and emerging market focus is paying off.”

As Nielsen notes, the performance of Novozymes Bioenergy division was particularly strong, the division seeing organic sales growth of +14%.

 

Positive signs for the rest of the year

Tina Sejersgård Fanø, Executive Vice President, Agriculture & Bioenergy at Novozymes explained a number of factors that have aided the growth of the company’s Bioenergy division.

“Bioenergy continues to deliver very good growth; six months into the year, organic growth was a satisfying 14% and the second quarter posted a strong 20%,” Fanø says in a statement.

“Enzyme sales for conventional biofuels continue to benefit from our broad technology base and innovative product portfolio. Novozymes’ newly launched yeast product, Innova Drive, also contributed to growth in the second quarter.”

“Looking outside North America, we had strong performance in Latin America, where Brazilian producers has increasingly started to expand into corn-based ethanol production. A number of plants have started to operate, and more are expected to come onstream over the next few years.”

“We continue to follow the recent debate on US biofuel policies where current conditions for ethanol producers look set to support our expectations for the full year.”