Specialty chemicals company Sika’s sales went up because it is growing and doing better after COVID.

(Reuters) -On Friday, Sika AG, a Swiss company that makes chemicals, said that its sales for the first half of the year went up by 18%. This was helped by its larger production footprint and a recovery in the construction industry after the pandemic.

The company’s chemical additives make concrete stronger and waterproof. Sales for the six months ending in June were 5.30 billion francs ($5.47 billion), up from 4.45 billion francs during the same time last year.

Local currency sales increased by 19.5 percent.

In a statement, CEO Thomas Hasler said, “The market conditions have also become more difficult for us.”

“The problems we have now will still be there in the second half of 2022, but I’m sure we can achieve our goals for

2022, thanks to how hard our workers work. “

Sika said that operating profit went up 22.7% to 841.9 million francs and that net profit after taxes went up 21.7% to 598.8 million francs.

From April to June, Sika increased the amount of concrete additives it made in the US and doubled the amount it could make in Bolivia.

Sika has confirmed that its annual sales will go over 10 billion francs for the first time in 2022. This will be due to a more than 10% increase in local currency sales.

It said it still wanted its operating profit to grow faster than its sales in local currency. It also said it expected to finish buying MBCC Group, which used to be the BASF Construction Chemicals Business, for 5.5 billion francs in the second half of the year.

$1 is worth 0.9682 Swiss francs.