Umicore boosts revenue, returns to profitability

Belgium-based Umicore, a metals production company that includes Recycling as one of its four main business units, returned to profitability in the first half of this year after recording losses in the first and second halves of 2024.

The company describes the six months of 2025 as a “solid first half of the year” that was “driven by sustained demand and group-wide operational efficiency measures within a supportive metal price environment.”

In its financial statement for the first half of this year, Umicore lists its net profit attributed to shareholders as 137 million euros ($156.4 million). That compares with a net loss of 1.47 billion ($1.68 billion) in the first half of 2024 and a loss of 8 million euros ($9.1 million) in the second half of last year.

The firm’s Recycling business group, which focuses on electronic scrap recycling and precious metals refining, “recorded solid results with revenues and earnings in line with the level of the first half of 2024,” Umicore says of that division’s first half 2025 performance.

Umicore says adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) in its Recycling unit amounted to 190 million euros ($217 million) in the first half of 2025.

Companywide, Umicore says, in the first half 2025, its adjusted EBITDA checked in at 433 million euros ($494 million), creating an adjusted EBITDA margin of 24.3 percent.

“Umicore delivered an encouraging performance in the first half of this year in a dynamic global context,” says Bart Sap, the firm’s CEO. “This highlights the quality of our businesses as well as our continued focus on operational efficiencies and rigorous capital deployment across the group.”

The CEO, who was promoted to that position last year, continues, “As we look to the future, we stay focused on executing our strategic priorities and take the necessary steps to drive cash generation in our foundation businesses and recover value in [the] Battery Cathode Materials [business unit].”

Sap adds, “In light of today’s geopolitical context and its resulting challenges, our longstanding circular business model is more relevant than ever as we continue to provide local access to critical metals and materials for a broad set of industries and applications. Our performance underlines the remarkable efforts of our teams, who consistently set the bar for industry performance.”