Feb 20 (Reuters) - Swiss industrial group OC Oerlikon is exploring options to separate its fibre-making polymer business to focus on metal coatings, it said on Tuesday after it forecast a drop in sales this year due to weak filament demand from China.

Oerlikon, whose polymer processing business supplies fibres used in clothes, carpets and car airbags among other products, warned several times last year that weak China demand would hit the division's results.

German chemicals and pharmaceuticals group Bayer is also weighing break-up options, while peer BASF has said it will give its units more autonomy but has no plans to split.

By selling or spinning off the polymer business, Oerlikon said it aims to become a pure-play surface solutions player, making metal coatings for the likes of NASA, to capitalise on "attractive" organic and inorganic growth opportunities.

The company's shares rose 4.9% in early trading, after falling 30% in the past year, as analysts favoured its focus on surface solutions.

"We will further leverage our technology leadership to drive growth and profitability by expanding regionally and into new applications and end markets," Executive Chairman Michael Suess said in a statement.

The group, which has already shrunk from five divisions in 2014 to two, said it would need one to three years to work out the best way to carve out the polymer business.

"While a bit messy, we generally see the results and further step to becoming a Surface Solutions pureplay as positive," Baader Helvea said in a note.

Oerlikon reported a 13.4% decline in 2023 operational earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation to 444 million Swiss francs ($503 million).

Adjusted for currency exchange effects, annual sales fell 5.9% to 2.69 billion, despite 7% organic growth at the surface solutions business.

The company said it expects "a high single-digit percentage decrease" in organic sales this year, as continued weakness in the polymer business will offset growth in surface solutions.

The separation of the polymer business will likely happen once the end market is recovering, RBC said in a note.

($1 = 0.8828 Swiss francs) (Reporting by Louis van Boxel-Woolf and Marleen Kaesebier in Gdansk; editing by Milla Nissi and Susan Fenton)