Wacker Chemie has published its preliminary figures for Q2 2023. The company now expects to post second-quarter Group sales of €1.75 billion. EBITDA amounts to €255 million.

Based on current estimations, WACKER has modified its forecast for 2023. Accordingly, the company expects that Group sales are likely to come in between €6.5 billion and €6.8 billion (previous guidance: between €7 billion and €7.5 billion).

Full-year EBITDA for 2023 is now expected to be between €800 million and €1.0 billion (previous guidance: between €1.1 billion and €1.4 billion). These figures are below current average market expectations, with Group sales reaching €7.0 billion and EBITDA €1.1 billion. ROCE is projected to be below the cost of capital (previous guidance: above the cost of capital, substantially lower than last year).

“Our expectations have declined primarily due to ongoing weak customer demand in a large number of industries, continuing inventory-reduction measures by customers and the lower year-over-year prices for many of our products,” said Christian Hartel, President and CEO of Wacker. “Numerous market experts anticipated stronger demand in the second half-year – an assumption that was reflected in our previous forecast.” However, Wacker, like so many other chemical companies, has yet to see a recovery.

Changes to the forecast for 2023 are mainly driven by performance at the Wacker Silicones and Wacker Polysilicon business divisions.