Chemical makers see cause for optimism in financial results

For the chemical industry, the third quarter of 2025 may prove to have been an inflection point. It was a difficult period for most chemical makers, but not without signs of better times ahead.In its earnings announcement, BASF, the world’s largest chemical maker, heralded that its results, which included a 3.2% decline in sales and a 62.5% increase in earnings, beatmarket expectations. In prepared remarks, CEO Markus Kamieth blames the sales decline on lower prices and currency headwinds. In a positive sign for the firm, sales volumes increased in its surface technology, chemical, and materials segments.“In the third quarter of 2025, market dynamics continued to be challenging: Upstream margins were still under pressure, and customer buying behavior in almost all industries and regions remained cautious,” Kamieth says.Celanese CEO Scott Richardson echoed the sentiment in prepared remarks about the quarter. The company’s engineering polymers business didn’t do as well as it had expected. Auto production, an important market for that business, slipped 2% from the preceding quarter. “End markets remain cautious amid lingering geopolitical risks,” Richardson says. Overall, Celanese’s sales were down 8.6%, and earnings dropped 44.4% from the year-earlier period. The Germany specialty chemical firm Evonik Industries had a rough quarter, with declines across its entire business. In total, the company posted an 11.5% drop in sales and a 52.8% drop in earnings. "The anticipated recovery in September failed to materialize,” Evonik CEO Christian Kullmann says in the third-quarter earnings report. “In the short term, this is painful. But longer