Page 57 - Plastics News March 2025
P. 57
BUSINESS NEWS
half of 2025. 162 million).
Outlook for 2025: EBITDA between EUR 1.0 bil- The Solutions & Specialties segment posted
lion and EUR 1.6 billion anticipated a 3.6% fall in sales to EUR 7.0 billion (previous
year: EUR 7.3 billion) due to lower average sell-
Covestro expects economic conditions to remain ing prices coupled with lower raw material pric-
challenging in 2025, too. Against this backdrop, es. EBITDA fell by 9.4% to EUR 740 million (pre-
the Group anticipates EBITDA of between EUR vious year: EUR 817 million). In addition to a drop
1.0 billion and EUR 1.6 billion for the current fiscal in margins, the reason for this was that, unlike in
year. Covestro expects FOCF of between EUR 0 the previous year, there was no non-recurring
and EUR 300 million and ROCE above WACC of positive effect resulting from the sale of the ad-
between –6 percentage points and –2 percent- ditive manufacturing business in 2023. In addi-
age points. The Group anticipates that Scope 1 tion, expenses due to implementation of the
and Scope 2 greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, STRONG transformation program reduced earn-
measured in terms of CO2 equivalents, at Coves- ings. The segment’s FOCF decreased by 24.3%
tro’s environmentally relevant* sites will be be- to EUR 417 million (previous year: EUR 551 mil-
tween 4.2 million metric tons and 4.8 million met- lion).
ric tons. The Group expects EBITDA for the first
quarter of 2025 of between EUR 50 million and Fourth quarter of 2024 with positive EBITDA and
EUR 150 million. cash flow
Increase in sales at Performance Materials; Solu- Covestro’s sales rose in the fourth quarter of
tions & Specialties impacted by declining prices 2024 by 0.9% year over year to around EUR 3.4
billion (previous year: EUR 3.3 billion). EBITDA
Sales in the Performance Materials segment increased by 44.7% compared to the prior-year
rose to EUR 7.0 billion (previous year: EUR 6.9 quarter to EUR 191 million (previous year: EUR
billion). While a successful pickup in volumes of 132 million). FOCF amounted to EUR 253 million
12% drove up sales, a weak market situation with and was therefore 246.6% higher than in the pri-
excess supply weighed on selling prices and or-year period (previous year: EUR 73 million).
margins. EBITDA fell by 1.2% to EUR 569 million
(previous year: EUR 576 million), while FOCF de- Source: Covestro
creased to EUR 78 million (previous year: EUR
March 2025 PLASTICS NEWS 57
