Borregaard ASA: Operational issues and lower biovanillin demand in the 4th quarter

During the 4^th quarter of 2023, operational issues have affected production at the Sarpsborg site, reducing the result mainly in BioMaterials. Following the annual maintenance stop in October, the production volumes, quality, and ability to utilise internal bioenergy have been temporarily reduced. This is due to various failures in production equipment after maintenance, as well as prolonged commissioning of new equipment. The operational issues have now been addressed, and no carry-over effects are expected into the 1^st quarter of 2024.

The result in BioSolutions will be negatively impacted by lower sales volume of biovanillin in the 4^th quarter. This is mainly due to lower demand for biovanillin, which is increasingly affected by a significant expansion in the global supply of synthetic vanillin and ethyl vanillin.

In total, the negative EBITDA effect is estimated to be in the range of NOK 80-100 million for the Group in the 4^th quarter. The temporary operational issues at the Sarpsborg site represent more than half of this effect.    

Sarpsborg, 9 December 2023

Contact:
Director Investor Relations, Knut-Harald Bakke, +47 905 79 164
Director Communications, Tone Horvei Bredal, +47 924 67 711

This information is considered to be inside information pursuant to the EU Market Abuse Regulation and is subject to the disclosure requirements pursuant to Section 5 – 12 of the Norwegian Securities Trading Act.

This stock exchange announcement was published by Knut-Harald Bakke, Director Investor Relations at Borregaard ASA, on 9 December 2023 at 12:10 CET.