FRANKFURT, July 12 (Reuters) - German chemicals giant BASF (BASFn.DE) on Wednesday cut its full-year earnings guidance, the latest in a string of chemical companies caught out by weak demand from industrial clients and higher interest rates.
In an unscheduled statement, BASF said earnings before interest and tax (EBIT) and adjusted for special items would be 4.0 billion euros to 4.4 billion euros ($4.90 billion) in 2023It had previously projected adjusted EBIT of 4.8 billion euros to 5.4 billion euros for the year, down from 6.9 billion in 2022.
"Global chemical production declined perceptibly in the first half of 2023," BASF said in a statement, putting this down to slowing growth in industrial output.
Chemical industry peers such as Croda (CRDA.L), Lanxess (LXSG.DE) , Victrex (VCTX.L) , Clariant (CLN.S) and Evonik (EVKn.DE) have recently cut their guidance, prompting several analysts to predict that BASF would be next.
Second-quarter adjusted EBIT dropped 57% to 1.01 billion euros, down from 2.34 billion a year ago.
Persons:
EBIT, VCI, Ludwig Burger, Sarah Marsh, Jane Merriman, Sharon Singleton
Organizations:
BASF, Thomson
Locations:
FRANKFURT, Europe, China