By Ozan Ergenay
(Reuters) -Speciality chemicals maker Lanxess on Thursday cut its full-year profit guidance more severely than expected, due to weak demand, and forecast no improvement in the economic environment during the remainder of the year.
The company now expects earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA), stripping out one-off items, of 528 million to 580 million euros ($618-$679 million) for 2025. It previously forecast a range of 600 million to 650 million euros.
That compared with analysts’ expectations of 572 million euros, a company-provided poll showed.
Lanxess shares were seen down 1.8% in early Frankfurt trade.
“The economic environment has deteriorated significantly again in recent months,” CEO Matthias Zacher said in a statement. “Additionally, ongoing tariff discussions with the U.S. are causing considerable market uncertainty and exacerbating the situation for the European chemical industry.”
Zacher added that there is “currently no improvement in sight for the economic situation.”
The German chemical sector has been struggling with subdued demand, high energy costs, supply chain issues and an economic slowdown.
U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariff roll-out has also increased the pressure on the industry, sending global markets into a tailspin and significantly dampening investors’ economic optimism.
Analysts at J.P.Morgan said in a note that a part of this guidance cut is also due to headwinds from the ongoing outage of chlorine supply to Lanxess from Covestro at a site in Germany.
“Given somewhat weaker than expected full-year guidance, the shares might see some underperformance today,” analysts added.
Lanxess has joined a ranks of other European chemical companies that have narrowed their annual forecasts recently, due to subdued demand, unfavorable foreign exchange effects and growing market uncertainty accelerated by U.S. tariffs, such as BASF BASFn.DE>, Evonik , Clariant, Wacker Chemie, DSM-Firmenich, Symrise< SY1G.DE>, K+S and Brenntag .
($1 = 0.8546 euros)
(Reporting by Ozan Ergenay in Gdansk, editing by Matt Scuffham)
