Sluggish demand drives Huntsman sales down 23.8%, profit falls 70%

Huntsman Corp.’s sales in 2023 fell to $6.1 billion, a drop of 23.8 percent vs. the $8 billion posted in 2022. Adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) fell 59.1 percent, declining from $1.2 billion in 2022 to $472 million last year.

Profits were down 70 percent to $153 million but per-share stock prices were up almost 5 percent to $25.80 in early trading Feb. 22.

Performance in the polyurethanes division in the year was similar in percentage terms, with sales falling by 23.7 percent from 2022’s $5.1 billion to $3.9 billion, and adjusted EBITDA experiencing a 60.5 [ercemt decline, from $628 million in 2022 to $248 million last year.

Looking at the fourth quarter, the companywide net loss of $71 million represented an improvement on the $91 million loss in the same quarter a year earlier. However, on an adjusted basis, it slipped from an $8 million profit in the 2022 quarter to a $36 million loss in the 2023 quarter.

The 16 percent drop in revenues for polyurethanes in the quarter, from $1.07 billion in 2022 to $895 million in 2023, was attributed to lower average selling prices for MDI, lower sales volumes and an adverse sales mix. Sales volumes were hit by an unplanned outage in its Rotterdam, Netherlands facility. Polyurethanes EBITDA fell 65 percent, from $37 million to $13 million, in the light of lower MDI margins.

“In early 2024, we have seen a moderate improvement from the lows experienced in the fourth quarter 2023, and while we are yet to see a clear inflexion point in demand, we remain positive about the future,” said Chairman, CEO and President Peter Huntsman. “We are well positioned to benefit significantly from volume leverage once our end markets improve and as we continue to control our cost base.”

He said the portfolio changes made in the past few years have put the company in a position to withstand what he described as one of the toughest demand environments in more than a decade.

“While the exact timing of a recovery remains uncertain, we are confident that construction spending and industrial activity in our core markets will return to past cycle averages, and the world will continue to value energy efficiency and light weighting which impacts two-thirds of our total sales,” he said.