Revenues in Advanced Materials were up by 3 per cent, with germanium semi-conductor substrates recording the strongest growth.

Good growth was experienced in the Precious Metals Products and Catalysts business with revenues up by 12 per cent, despite lower sales volumes in North America for Automotive Catalysts. The acquisition of Delphi Catalysts was closed in September and the integration of operations is progressing smoothly.

Revenues in Precious Metals Services were down 1 per cent, with market conditions remaining strong.

Zinc Specialties revenues were 25 per cent up as a result of higher premiums in Zinc Chemicals

Positive operating cash flows in the period were supplemented by a reduction in working capital requirements. Some €120 million worth of Umicore shares have been purchased as part of the company’s announced €150 million share buy-back programme. The company intends to complete the remaining purchases in the coming weeks.

The part owned Nyrstar subsidiary was floated on 29 October. The proceeds for Umicore from the operation (net of transaction costs) are expected to be approximately €680 million.

Umicore confirms its expectation for full year recurring earnings before income tax (EBIT) for continued operations in the range of €345 million to €365 million. This compares with 2006 recurring EBIT of €329.4 million.

• Umicore has set up a joint venture with Solvay to look at production of membrane electrode assemblies for fuel cell applications. SolviCore was founded on July 1st, 2006 by its parent companies Umicore and Solvay. The 50-50 joint venture is based in Hanau, at Umicore’s main research site in Germany. SolviCore currently employs 40 people in research, development, production and sales of membrane electrode assemblies (MEA) and related compounds, to be used in fuel cells (FC) applications.