(Reuters) – Dow Inc’s fourth-quarter profit more than doubled on Thursday, helped by higher prices for its chemicals as supplies remained tight amid strong demand for its products.
Demand for the company’s chemicals, used in everything from food packaging and mattresses to textiles and electronics, has been strong since it began recovering after a brief hit at the start of the pandemic and that has helped the company boost prices.
Overall prices climbed 39% in the fourth quarter from a year earlier.
Volumes fell 4%, primarily driven by supply constraints from maintenance and lingering effects from the pandemic and weather-related outages.
The company’s net operating income, which excludes certain items, rose to $1.6 billion, or $2.15 per share, in the three months ended Dec. 31, from $607 million, or 81 cents per share, a year earlier.
Sales in the last three months of 2021 rose to $14.36 billion from $10.71 billion, a year earlier.
(Reporting by Ruhi Soni in Bengaluru; Editing by Shounak Dasgupta)
