REGION – Brazilian board manufacturer Eucatex stands out among its peers by registering the best performance figures in the first half of 2019 (1H-2019) according to the Notifix® Index.

This index is the result of the evaluation of the eight main international manufacturers of wood boards that publish comparable results: Arauco (Chile), Duratex (Brazil), Eucatex (Brazil), Masisa (Chile), Norbord (Canada), Pfleiderer (Germany), Proteak (Mexico) and Sonae Indústria (Portugal).

In the comparison of 1H – 2019, Eucatex stood out in terms of growth in Net Profit (+ 13.766%), sales growth (24.1%) and improvement in EBITDA margin (+1.5 p.p.). The Mexican Proteak, included for the first time in the Notifix Index, also stood out with the highest growth in EBITDA (39.2%) and together with Eucatex with the greatest improvement in the EBITDA margin (+ 1.5%).

In 1H-2019 the best EBITDA margins were for Chile’s Arauco and for Eucatex: 25.4% and 19.0% respectively. Followed by Brazilian Duratex (17.9%) and Portuguese Sonae Industria (11.3%).

As for the improvement in sales, Eucatex was followed by Proteak (17.2%) and Sonae Industria (4.1%). On the other hand, Canadian Norbord and Chilean Masisa experienced the biggest drop in sales in 1H-2019 with -28.1% and -25.8% respectively.

Regarding the growth of profits (net income), only Brazil’s Eucatex and Duratex achieved an improvement. All others obtained losses in the period.