Lanxess AG has confirmed its guidance for the full year 2026 and continues to expect EBITDA pre exceptional items to be between €450 million and €550 million, according to the company’s financial statement May 7, as per Chemweek.
The company anticipates the weak economic environment and ongoing geopolitical uncertainties of the first quarter to persist for at least the coming months, Lanxess said, adding, however, that EBITDA pre exceptional items in the second quarter is expected to be significantly higher than in the first quarter, reaching €130 million-€150 million.
There has been a slight positive momentum since March, said Matthias Zachert, CEO of Lanxess, in the statement. “Due to the conflict in the Middle East, the supply chains of many Asian competitors have been disrupted, causing customers to turn back to European suppliers such as Lanxess. Supply capability is currently a significant competitive advantage. At the same time, we have raised prices for many of our products to pass on the increased costs of raw materials, energy and logistics,” said Zachert.
Business activities started to pick up, day by day, in March, and demand levels have now “kind of normalized,” Zachert said during a press conference May 7. “We have also seen that the price pressure from China came down a little bit, which is a positive development,” he said.
This gradual increase in demand coupled with less price pressure from Asia is healthy development that is not simply the result of precautionary inventory measures, Zachert noted.
Price was the main priority for customers in the last three to nine months, due to the global pressure on competitiveness, on profitability, but this has now changed and supply reliability or delivery security is now the priority for them, he said. This is true for Europe, but also for some parts of Asia, he added.
It is not possible to know if this will be the case in the midterm or long-term, but customers seem to have realized that they should not be completely dependent on Asia, Zachert said.
The Middle East war has a stronger negative impact on Asia than Europe and this is important, because despite the war being a global disaster, it has improved the competitiveness of the European chemical industry, Zachert added.
Meanwhile, he said that he expects a positive impact from the German federal government’s infrastructure program in the second half of the year as the building and construction industry will pick up their activities again.
There are more applications for permits for new construction and restoration projects, but this has not yet leaved any “traces on the order books,” Zachert said. The assumption is, therefore, that the impact will be positive but in the second half of the year, he said.
Lanxess’ first-quarter net loss more than doubled year over year, to €141 million, while EBITDA pre exceptional items declined 29.3%, to €94 million, beating, however, analysts’ consensus estimate of €91.1 million provided by S&P Capital IQ. EBITDA pre exceptional items margin decreased 1.5 percentage points, to 6.8%. Sales in the first quarter of the year were down 13.9%, to €1.38 billion.
“In a market environment that remained weak, lower input prices for raw materials and persistent price pressure from the Asian region in some businesses led to lower selling prices. Furthermore, exchange rate movements and the portfolio effect resulting from the sale of the urethane systems business as of April 1, 2025, had a negative impact on the results,” Lanxess said.
The company’s consumer protection segment generated sales of €458 million in the first quarter of 2026, representing a 10.7% year-over-year decline. The segment’s EBITDA pre exceptional items was 15.1% lower, at €62 million, while the EBITDA margin pre exceptionals items was at 13.5%, down 0.7 percentage points year over year.
Lanxess’ specialty additives segment recorded sales of €521 million, 4.4% down year over year. The segment’s EBITDA pre exceptional items was €44 million, 15.4% lower year over year. The EBITDA margin pre exceptionals items declined 1.1 percentage point, to 8.4%.
Sales of the advanced intermidiates segment dropped 16.8% year over year, to €396 million. The segment’s EBITDA pre exceptional items was €27 million, down 32.5% compared with the same period of the previous year. The EBITDA margin pre exceptional items was 6.8%, from 8.4% in the prior-year period.
mrrhub.com