By Dimitri Rhodes, Olivier Cherfan
(Reuters) -Belgian chemicals maker Solvay sees little impact from U.S. tariffs on its soda ash business, it said on Thursday, but warned macroeconomic and geopolitical issues would continue to weigh on volume recovery in 2025.
Solvay, whose products range from base chemicals like soda ash to speciality polymers used in cars and airplanes, operates in several regions and produces more than 80% of goods sold locally, so its export flows are quite limited, Chief Financial Officer Alexandre Blum said in a press call.
It produces soda ash, which makes up about 30% of its total sales, in Europe and the U.S. and exports it to countries in Latin America, the Middle East and Asia. It is not very active in China, Blum told Reuters.
“If there are some retaliation to the U.S. tariff, we could be impacted,” he added, however.
The company expects the challenging market trends seen in the latter part of 2024 to continue for at least the first half of 2025, weighing on sales volumes.
It forecast earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) of 1.0 billion to 1.1 billion euros ($1.08 billion to $1.19 billion) for 2025, broadly in line with the 1.05 billion it made last year and market expectations.
In the final quarter of 2024, its core profit was 256 million euros, 7.6% ahead of analysts’ consensus compiled by Vara Research.
Solvay maintained profitability despite lower soda ash prices, analysts at Degroof Petercam said, pointing to resilient pricing of its other chemicals, particularly peroxide, and cost savings following the separation with Syensqo.
Solvay has been cutting costs due to soft demand and the volatile business environment, and on Thursday raised its target for the annual gross savings run-rate to 350 million euros in 2028, from 300 million euros previously.
These additional savings will mainly come from new digitalisation efforts at Solvay’s plants, Blum told Reuters.
($1 = 0.9256 euros)
(Reporting by Dimitri Rhodes and Olivier Cherfan in Gdansk; editing by Milla Nissi)
