European chemical companies: performance recovery is gratifying, uncertainties still exist in the future

Recently, European chemical companies intensively released second-quarter financial reports
.

Due to continued strong demand, rising prices and increased transaction volume in the first half of this year, most of the major European chemical companies' earnings and sales in the second quarter exceeded analysts' expectations

Performance recovery exceeds expectations

Performance recovery exceeds expectationsPerformance recovery exceeds expectations

In the second quarter of 2020, European chemical companies were generally severely affected by the new crown pneumonia epidemic.
Therefore, it is completely normal for the performance of the second quarter of 2021 to have a significant year-on-year increase
.

Even compared with the second quarter of 2019, the performance of most European companies has returned to the level at that time

Taking BASF as an example, due to the increase in prices and production, the company's sales in the second quarter increased by 56% to 19.
8 billion euros; excluding special items, EBIT was 2.
4 billion euros
.

In the second quarter of 2019, BASF's sales were 15.

According to Solvay’s second-quarter financial report released by Solvay, the company achieved a net profit of 276 million euros, which was higher than 109 million euros in the same period last year, but lower than the net profit of 318 million euros in the same period in 2019
.

Sales increased by 12.

Arkema reported that in the second quarter, the company's net profit doubled as much as 826 million euros over the same period last year, and sales increased 25.
9% year-on-year to 2.
39 billion euros
.

In 2019, the company's net profit was 407 million euros and sales were 2.

Market segments are bullish across the board

　All　market segments are bullishAll market segments are bullish

Judging from the feedback from major European companies, the bullish performance of Europeanized companies is inseparable from the current hot trading in the chemical market and rising prices
.

From the perspective of the macro market trend, as most European countries have been vaccinated extensively, the epidemic prevention restrictions have been further relaxed, which has further restored the European economy
.

At the same time, the economic improvement of trading partners and the launch of a large-scale recovery plan also boosted the European economy

In addition, due to the problem of insufficient market supply in the second quarter, global chemical prices continue to rise, and the financial data of chemical companies is naturally better
.

BASF said that due to insufficient product supply, market demand is strong and price levels have risen significantly

There are still hidden worries behind good grades

　There are hidden worries　behind good gradesthere are hidden worries behind good grades

Despite the gratifying results of European chemical companies in the second quarter, some current problems in the European economy may still affect the future performance of European chemical companies
.

　　Repeated epidemics are an important threat
.

At present, the delta strain of the mutant new crown pneumonia virus is spreading in Europe and the world, and may cause a new wave of more serious epidemics in Europe at any time

　　On the other hand, supply bottlenecks have made the European economic recovery even more unbalanced and made the high profits of chemical companies unstable
.
Recently, some MDI devices in Europe have been discontinued due to supply problems
.
The floods in the Rhine Valley also affected BASF's olefin production
.
Experts from market research firm Exin Huamai pointed out that due to the insufficient supply of raw materials, the production capacity bottleneck encountered by the Eurozone manufacturing industry has further intensified
.
Although European chemical companies can obtain high profits in a short period of time, once a supply chain interruption similar to that caused by the cold wave in the United States at the beginning of this year occurs, it is difficult to guarantee the profitability of European chemical companies
.