March 3 Business Watch: Lyondell cuts sustainability goals; AbbVie to invest in drug chemicals

C&EN’s wrap-up of 2025 chemical company financial results, written last week by senior correspondent Alex Tullo, wasn’t an upbeat read. Almost every major company posted lower sales and earnings for the year. One exception was DuPont, which announced both higher sales and earnings compared with 2024. DuPont, as most readers know, has gone through major changes in the past decade and bears little resemblance to the diversified chemical company it once was. In fact, it is barely a chemical company anymore.DuPont executives are more than fine with that. “Our portfolio is not a chemical company portfolio,” Chief Financial Officer Antonella Franzen said during a conference call with stock analysts (PDF) last month to discuss the firm’s results. “When you look at our performance, our performance is not mirroring that of a specialty chemical company either.”Franzen said DuPont is lobbying to change DuPont’s sector in the Global Industry Classification Standard, which financial services firms created to categorize major companies. Franzen wants to move DuPont from the materials sector, where it is considered a specialty chemicals company, to somewhere in the industrials sector. DuPont, it seems, wants nothing to do with the chemical industry anymore, and given the industry’s performance last year, can you really blame it? Top stories from C&ENAs they report generally poor financial results for 2025, chemical makers are signaling more cutbacks for 2026.Japan’s chemical makers were long enthralled with China, but as business becomes harder there, companies are starting to shift their attention to India.The Portuguese chemical maker