Trinseo, a specialty material solutions provider, reported its third quarter 2024 financial results. Net sales of $868 million in the third quarter decreased 1% versus prior year. Lower sales volumes, primarily related to intentional volume reduction of low-margin business in Polystyrene and, to a lesser extent, Latex Binders, resulted in an 8% decrease in net sales. Higher prices, from the pass-through of higher raw material costs, led to a 7% increase.

Third quarter net loss of $87 million was $49 million worse than prior year primarily due to higher interest, tax and restructuring expenses in the current year. However, Adjusted EBITDA of $66 million, which included a favorable impact of $3 million from net timing, was $25 million above prior year, reflecting improved results in all business segments except Americas Styrenics, which was negatively impacted by unplanned outages during the quarter. Savings from previously announced restructuring actions, lower natural gas hedge losses and a favorable net timing variance positively contributed to third quarter results

Commenting on the Company’s third quarter performance, Frank Bozich, President and Chief Executive Officer of Trinseo, said, “As expected, market conditions and Adjusted EBITDA were sequentially similar to the prior quarter. Despite continued weak demand in many of our end markets, particularly building and construction and appliances, we saw significant year-over-year profitability improvement largely as a result of our restructuring actions and continued moderation of European input costs.”

2024 Outlook

Fourth quarter 2024 net loss of $81 million to $71 million

Fourth quarter 2024 Adjusted EBITDA of $40 million to $50 million

Commenting on the fourth quarter outlook, Bozich said, “We expect Adjusted EBITDA to be sequentially lower from year-end seasonality, but still higher than the prior year due to the benefits from our restructuring initiatives. We also expect free cash flow to turn positive in the fourth quarter due to typical seasonal working capital improvements.”