Chemours ends its fiscal year with $7 million in profit after paying out a costly settlement to thousands of people claiming the DuPont spinoff is responsible for their cancer diagnoses.
In the 4th quarter of last year, Chemours lost $230 million – mostly due to its $335 million share of a joint settlement with DuPont to end more than 3,500 pending lawsuits over alleged PFOA dumping in Ohio River Valley.
That still puts it $7 million in the green overall for the year, which is nearly $100 million more than it made in 2015.
The chemical company announced 400 layoffs worldwide after its poor performance in 2015, helping save an estimated $200 million annually.
Demand for its refrigerant Opteon helped drive fluoroproduct sales 10 percent over the prior year’s quarter.
Titanium oxide sales are also up – mostly due to higher global prices.
In all, Chemours’ sales totaled $5.4 billion for 2016 – down about $300 million from the prior year.
