Abstract
HURRICANES TOOK the wind out of thirdquarter profits for many chemical companies. But even more daunting is a looming recession and its likely effects on earnings for the rest of this year and next. Companies affected by September’s Gulf Coast hurricanes handled storm effects differently in their quarterly financial results, which complicated the mixed earnings picture. While DuPont took a charge of $146 million on earnings and Dow Chemical excluded $81 million, Celanese included $15 million of costs related to Hurricane Ike in its adjusted earnings. Even without the hurricane impact, Dow reported earnings 31.1% lower than the same period one year ago. Net sales increased 13.4%, but the company saw feedstock and energy costs surge 48% to $2.6 billion, the largest year-over-year increase in its history. Although the company implemented price increases totaling 22%, the higher prices and weak demand lowered sales volumes by 5%. Last quarter, Dow’s geographic diversity—70% of its sales ...
Published Version
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call