Issue 5/2020 - Chemical giants at a glance

BASF's sales in 2019 amounted to €59.
3 billion, down 2 percent year-on-year.
EBIT before special items amounted to €4.
5 billion, down 28 percent
year-on-year, due to lower earnings in the Chemicals & Materials segment.
EBIT before special items in the Materials & Chemicals segment decreased by €2.
2 billion to €1.
8 billion
.
Sales in the fourth quarter of 2019 fell slightly by 2 percent to €14.
7 billion, and EBIT before special items rose by 23 percent to €765 million, driven by significantly higher
earnings in the Agricultural Solutions, Nutrition & Care, Industrial Solutions and Surface Technologies segments.
The company expects sales of 60 billion ~ 63 billion euros in 2020 and EBIT before special items of 4.
2 billion ~ 4.
8 billion euros
.


Solvay's earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) amounted to €2,322 million in 2019, down 0.
4 percent
year-on-year.
Double-digit volume growth in the composites business, higher selling prices in the Performance Chemicals business and tight cost control partially offset the impact of weak demand in automotive, electrical and electronics, and oil and gas markets
.
Basic EBITDA is expected to be flat or slightly lower (0%~3%)
in 2020.
EBITDA is expected to decline by a high single-digit percentage in the first quarter of 2020 compared to the first quarter of 2019 due to the discontinuation of 737 MAX production, the global spread of the novel coronavirus and the increasing impact of the oil and gas market
.