Ball Corporation reports an 18% drop in annual net earnings for 2022 despite higher sales of beverage packaging

On February 2, Ball Corporation announced the full-year 2022 and the fourth quarter results on a U.S. GAAP basis, reporting net earnings for the entire year attributable to the corporation of $719 million or diluted earnings per share of $2.25. That was a downfall of 18.22 per cent from the previous year’s net earnings of $878 million despite a hike in sales by 11.15 per cent from $13.81 billion to $15.35 billion. Ball’s full-year 2022 comparable net earnings were $891 milion or $2.78 per diluted share compared to $1.16 billion or $3.49 per diluted share in 2021.

The company’s fourth quarter net earnings were $55 million or 17 cents per diluted share, significantly down from $297 million or 90 cents per diluted share. Sales were slightly down in Q4 to $3.55 billion from $3.67 billion a year ago. Ball’s comparable diluted earnings per share in Q4 were 44 cents compared to 97 cents during the same period last year.

Commenting on the results, Daniel W. Fisher, president and CEO of Ball Corporation, said: "The company's 2022 results were driven by macroeconomic and geopolitical conditions leading to lower volume across the Americas, higher costs to manage inventory levels and decisive actions to align supply/demand and sell our Russian operations in response to the war in Ukraine. Our employees' agility to execute during another year of unprecedented and challenging activities with speed and empathy speaks to their professionalism and ownership mindset. In 2023, inflationary cost recovery, actions to reduce costs and operating safely and efficiently to serve sustainable aluminum packaging demand and deliver critical aerospace programs will significantly improve results in 2023."

Ball Corporation further reported in its annual results that it generated comparable operating earnings of $642 million from beverage packaging in North and Central America on sales of $6.70 billion compared to $681 million on sales of $5.86 billion in 2021. For the fourth quarter of 2022, the company posted comparable operating earnings of $99 million on sales of $1.51 billion compared to $162 million on sales of $1.52 billion during the same period in 2021.

From beverage packaging in Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA), Ball yielded comparable operating earnings of $358 million on sales of $3.85 billion for 2022 compared to $452 million on sales of $3.51 billion in 2021. For 4QCY2022, Ball reported the earnings of $47 million on sales of $748 million versus $103 million on sales of $870 million during the corresponding period of the previous year. Similarly, from beverage packaging in South Amercia, Ball generated comparable operating earnings of $275 million in 2022 on sales of $2.11 billion compared to $348 million on sales of $2.02 billion in 2021.

From the aerospace segment, Ball Corporation yielded operating earnings of $170 million for the full-year 2022, up by $1 million from $170 million in 2021. Sales also grew from $1.91 billion in 2021 to $1.98 billion in 2022. For the fourth quarter, earnings from the same segment were $44 million on sales of $506 million versus $54 million on sales of $530 million a year earlier.

Scott C. Morrison, executive vice president and chief financial officer of Ball Corporation, said: "We are controlling the things we can control in today's global economic and geopolitical environment. Following actions executed in the second half of 2022, we remain well-positioned for earnings and free cash flow growth, achieving appropriate leverage targets and returning value to shareholders.”