Earnings call transcript: Celanese Q2 2025 beats forecasts amid weak demand

CEO Scott Richardson highlighted the company’s strategic efforts to navigate demand challenges, stating, "We’re at least in the Western Hemisphere in acetyl demand, we’re probably at the lowest levels we’ve seen in twenty years." He also emphasized the company’s commitment to innovation, particularly in electric vehicles, noting, "Electric vehicles are definitely here to stay." With a beta of 1.1 and a solid current ratio of 1.94, InvestingPro analysis suggests the company maintains strong fundamentals despite current market headwinds. Subscribers to InvestingPro gain access to detailed financial health metrics, comprehensive valuation models, and expert analysis covering over 1,400 US stocks, helping investors make informed decisions during challenging market conditions. With a beta of 1.1 and a solid current ratio of 1.94, InvestingPro analysis suggests the company maintains strong fundamentals despite current market headwinds. Subscribers to InvestingPro gain access to detailed financial health metrics, comprehensive valuation models, and expert analysis covering over 1,400 US stocks, helping investors make informed decisions during challenging market conditions.

Key Takeaways

• Celanese reported higher-than-expected EPS and revenue for Q2 2025.
• The stock price dropped significantly post-earnings due to concerns over weak demand.
• The company maintained its free cash flow outlook at $700-$800 million.
• Celanese is targeting $2 quarterly EPS through strategic initiatives.
• The company is facing a 20-year low in Western Hemisphere acetyl demand.

Company Performance

Celanese’s performance in Q2 2025 was marked by a robust financial showing despite facing significant market challenges. The company managed to beat both EPS and revenue forecasts, continuing its trend of delivering solid financial results. However, the broader industry context, including weak demand in the automotive and construction sectors, posed significant headwinds. Celanese’s strategic focus on innovation and operational efficiency aims to counteract these challenges.

Financial Highlights

• Revenue: $2.53 billion, up from the forecast of $2.5 billion.
• Earnings per share: $1.44, exceeding the forecast of $1.40.
• Free cash flow outlook: Maintained at $700-$800 million.

Earnings vs. Forecast

Celanese’s actual EPS of $1.44 surpassed the forecasted $1.40, marking a 2.86% surprise. Revenue also saw a 1.2% surprise, with actual figures at $2.53 billion compared to the expected $2.5 billion. This performance highlights the company’s ability to manage costs and drive efficiencies amidst challenging market conditions.

Market Reaction

CEO Scott Richardson highlighted the company’s strategic efforts to navigate demand challenges, stating, "We’re at least in the Western Hemisphere in acetyl demand, we’re probably at the lowest levels we’ve seen in twenty years." He also emphasized the company’s commitment to innovation, particularly in electric vehicles, noting, "Electric vehicles are definitely here to stay." With a beta of 1.1 and a solid current ratio of 1.94, InvestingPro analysis suggests the company maintains strong fundamentals despite current market headwinds. Subscribers to InvestingPro gain access to detailed financial health metrics, comprehensive valuation models, and expert analysis covering over 1,400 US stocks, helping investors make informed decisions during challenging market conditions.

Outlook & Guidance

Celanese provided guidance for Q3 2025, with expected EPS ranging from $1.1 to $1.4. The company is targeting $2 quarterly EPS through controllable actions, including cost structure improvements and product optimization. Despite current challenges, Celanese remains focused on long-term growth and innovation in areas such as electric vehicles and clean energy.

Executive Commentary

CEO Scott Richardson highlighted the company’s strategic efforts to navigate demand challenges, stating, "We’re at least in the Western Hemisphere in acetyl demand, we’re probably at the lowest levels we’ve seen in twenty years." He also emphasized the company’s commitment to innovation, particularly in electric vehicles, noting, "Electric vehicles are definitely here to stay."

Risks and Challenges

• Weak demand in key sectors such as automotive and construction.
• Decline in Western Hemisphere acetyl demand to historic lows.
• Inventory reduction efforts may impact short-term financials.
• Potential macroeconomic pressures and geopolitical uncertainties.
• Short-term visibility reduced to 2-4 weeks, impacting planning.

Q&A

During the earnings call, analysts focused on the company’s demand outlook and inventory strategies. Questions addressed the impact of weak demand in automotive and medical sectors, with executives detailing plans for inventory reduction and earnings improvement. Additionally, challenges in the acetic acid market were discussed, highlighting ongoing pressures in key product segments.

Full transcript - Celanese (CE) Q2 2025:

Daryl, Conference Operator: Greetings. Welcome to the Celanese Second Quarter twenty twenty five Earnings Call and Webcast. At this time, all participants are in a listen only mode. A question and answer session will follow the brief remarks. Please note this conference is being recorded.

I will now turn the conference over to Bill Cunningham. Thank you. You may begin.

Bill Cunningham, Vice President of Investor Relations, Celanese Corporation: Thanks, Daryl. Welcome to the Celanese Corporation second quarter twenty twenty five earnings conference call. My name is Bill Cunningham, Vice President of Investor Relations. With me today on the call are Scott Richardson, President and Chief Executive Officer and Chuck Kyrish, Chief Financial Officer. Celanese distributed its second quarter earnings release via Business Wire and posted prepared comments as well as a presentation on our Investor Relations website yesterday afternoon.

As a reminder, we’ll discuss non GAAP financial measures today. You can find definitions of these measures as well as reconciliations to the comparable GAAP measures on our website. Today’s presentation will also include forward looking statements. Please review the cautionary language regarding forward looking statements, which can be found at the end of both the press release and prepared comments. Form eight ks reports containing all of these materials have also been submitted to the SEC.

With that, Daryl, let’s please go ahead and open it up for questions.

Daryl, Conference Operator: Thank you. We will now be conducting a question and answer session. Our first questions come from the line of David Begleiter with Deutsche Bank. Please proceed with your question.

David Begleiter, Analyst, Deutsche Bank: Thank you. Good morning. Scott, in your prepared comments, referenced order books beginning to weaken in June and then the trend continuing into July. Can you provide a little more color on really what end markets and you saw that weakening? And how severe has that weakening been?

Scott Richardson, President and Chief Executive Officer, Celanese Corporation: Thanks, David. We talked in early June about starting to see China automotive orders pull back a little bit. That has continued into the third quarter here. The other area in Engineered Materials that we’ve seen a little bit of weakening versus the second quarter is in European demand. The Americas has remained relatively stable there.

And then the other bucket I would call out is in the Western Hemisphere in the Asteel chain. I think we’ve volume weakness towards the end of the very end of the quarter and that has continued into July. I mean those are the really, I would say, of the big buckets of where we’ve seen that demand change.

David Begleiter, Analyst, Deutsche Bank: Very good. And just on the $2 per share quarterly EPS run rate, how do we get there via bridge? And when do we get there do you think? Thank you.

Scott Richardson, President and Chief Executive Officer, Celanese Corporation: I think it’s important that the two dollars for us is really an achievable target. We’re talking a lot about it internally. It’s not aspirational. We have concrete plans to get there. And I would say those controllable plans fall in two buckets.

The first, cost structure items and the second is really executing our differentiated business models. And so if you kind of start with the midpoint of our Q3 guide of 1 point dollars 2 you get about $0.25 to $0.30 going into next year or really into the fourth quarter as well from the inventory movement as well as not having kind of the order timing and the pull ins we saw into the second quarter. Next year, we called out an additional around $0.10 per quarter of additional cost actions. So that kind of gets you into that $1.6 1.65 range, which is quite honestly about the range that we had walked into the third quarter with where if q two demand had held. And we still had a gap to close there.

And that gap for us is really around four controllable areas. The first, additional cost and footprint actions. Some of these are more complex than the ones we’ve already actioned, but they’re doable. They just take a little bit more time, but we’re working these really in earnest right now. The second is high impact programs, driving additional value in high margin spaces, spaces where we have a real differentiated position.

The third, additional price opportunities in Engineered Materials. We are getting some price. Certainly, want to get more. There are certain products and grades that we have where pricing is really at unsustainable levels. So continuing to find ways to move price in discrete pockets of the business there.

And the third is that there are pockets of opportunity in the acetyl chain, particularly, you know, more in some of our downstream products for us to find additional opportunities there to to drive more value more volume for price. So those are the four controllable actions we’re working. These actions will get us to $2 per quarter. It just may be a few quarters delayed versus where we were when demand was a little stronger in the second quarter. But the path, we believe, is strong.

And if demand changes, we’re ready. And we’re ready to pounce and grab that volume if it’s there for us.

David Begleiter, Analyst, Deutsche Bank: Thank you.

Daryl, Conference Operator: Thank you. Our next questions come from the line of Ghansham Panjabi with Baird. Please proceed with your questions.

Ghansham Panjabi, Analyst, Baird: Thank you, operator. Good morning, everybody. Scott, the $25,000,000 inventory reduction impact in the EM segment you called out specific to 3Q. I mean, I know you’re focused on reducing inventory levels, but is the magnitude of the impact a function of just the weaker demand you kind of went through as it relates to order patterns for 3Q and late 2Q?

Scott Richardson, President and Chief Executive Officer, Celanese Corporation: Yes. I’m just going make a few high level comments on that, Ghansham, and then I’ll let Chuck walk through the specific details. On our fourth quarter earnings call in February, I called out that free cash flow generation was our top priority. And that no matter how the year played out, we there were a number of scenarios where we were going to pivot to drive free cash flow. And I’m proud of the team here.

I’m proud of the team around the actions that are being taken. And if you look high level at our free cash flow guide of 700 to $800,000,000 when you look at that on a free cash flow per share basis, that’s somewhere in that $7, you know, per free cash flow per share. That is unique and strong. And so I’m proud of the actions we’re taking, and we’re gonna continue to prioritize cash. So if we need to pivot with demand, we’ll do that.

Chuck Kyrish, Chief Financial Officer, Celanese Corporation: Yes. Hey, Ghansham. Let me talk about some of the income statement impacts of this. As context, look, we’ve our inventory reduction efforts in EM, we’re on a multi year journey here and it allows us to sustainably operate the business at lower inventory and maintain our customer liability standards. We’re doing this in many different ways warehouse consolidation, SKU rationalization, safety stock optimization, raw material reductions.

As for the third quarter sequential headwind, mix plays a pretty big role here. Some of our products in EM run on a semi annual production campaign. We ran one of those campaigns in the second quarter on products with a little bit higher associated fixed costs. It’s just part of our normal production plan for the year. This actually generated Ghansham a benefit in the second quarter of about 10,000,000 to $15,000,000 to earnings and that was always part of our Q2 earnings guide.

So with the current demand trends, we’ll actually draw some of that inventory in the third quarter, which will then generate a similar size negative earnings impact of 10,000,000 to 15,000,000 And so that’s how you get the $25,000,000 net sequential negative impact in Q3. As for the full year, the earnings impact from 2Q and 3Q basically offset as I explained. We do expect a small impact in Q4 negative, but no real significant impact for the year. It’s really important to remember that we’re also getting contributions to our inventory reduction through areas like these raw materials and even offtake arrangements, some of which don’t have any impact on the income statement from an absorption standpoint.

Ghansham Panjabi, Analyst, Baird: Okay, very helpful. And just for the second question as it relates to the 2Q pressure points for the AC segment that you called out, right, so acetate toe and vinyls. How do you expect those two dynamics to evolve sequentially?

Scott Richardson, President and Chief Executive Officer, Celanese Corporation: Yes. We’re not expecting a big change right now, Ghansham. We’re expecting that to continue, particularly in toe. I mean, as I called out on the first question, we are seeing a little bit of softness in demand to start the third quarter, even relative to the second on an Acetyl non tow product. So that’s really in that vinyls chain.

So I think it’s relatively similar with potentially a little bit of downside on the volume side. Now that will be offset in asset yields with us not having turnaround. So that’s why you’ve got kind of the sequential guide up versus where we finished in the second quarter.

Ghansham Panjabi, Analyst, Baird: Okay. Very helpful. Thanks so much.

Daryl, Conference Operator: Thank you. Our next question is coming from the line of Jeff Zekauskas with JPMorgan. Please proceed with your questions.

Bill Cunningham, Vice President of Investor Relations, Celanese Corporation: Thanks very much. Are tariffs in China affecting your tow business? That is, is there material that you normally ship into China that’s now more difficult because of tariffs or not really?

Scott Richardson, President and Chief Executive Officer, Celanese Corporation: No, Jeff. Our tow business in China is really done entirely through our joint venture and our joint venture partners. So we’re seeing no impact from tariffs.

Bill Cunningham, Vice President of Investor Relations, Celanese Corporation: Okay. And in VAM and acetic acid in China, are you at least breakeven? And of your Asian sales in VAM and acetic acid, Is there any that comes from The United States?

Scott Richardson, President and Chief Executive Officer, Celanese Corporation: Yes, we are breakeven. We’re above breakeven still, Jeff. Now what I will say is we are selling less third party acetic acid than what we have historically. We are, as I called out last quarter, continuing to pivot further into the downstream products like emulsions, re dispersible powders because we’ve seen more pockets of value where we can differentiate ourselves. So continue looking at that landscape and kind of working that wheel of products that we have, that’s really pushing us further downstream.

We are selling a little bit of US material in Asia in certain regions. Now that may be direct ship or it could come through swaps, etcetera. So whether it’s actual or virtual, that has been something that we have been doing since we started up the Clear Lake expansion last year.

Bill Cunningham, Vice President of Investor Relations, Celanese Corporation: Okay, good. Thank you very much.

Daryl, Conference Operator: Thank you. Our next questions come from the line of Michael Sison with Wells Fargo. Please proceed with your questions.

Michael Sison, Analyst, Wells Fargo: Hey, guys. So just curious, in terms of your third quarter outlook, I recall you had thought you’d get zero one five dollars to $0.20 or so in cost savings, another $0.15 to $20 in less turnarounds. Is that still the case? And that would imply sort of this minus $0.50 to get to the midpoint from weaker demand and inventory destocking. So if that’s sort of the math, does that minus $0.50 maybe come back in the fourth quarter and maybe the seasonality that you typically get isn’t as bad as we head into the fourth?

Scott Richardson, President and Chief Executive Officer, Celanese Corporation: Yes. Thanks, Mike. As we kind of look at this, I mean, if you normalize for the inventory and some of those accelerated orders that we saw in the second quarter, that kind of gets $0.25 or so up off of the Q2 guide. So that basically puts the third quarter as we’re looking at it, it’s really a from an enterprise perspective, the underlying company is performing kind of at or even slightly better in the third quarter than what we did in the second quarter because of those cost reductions not having the turnarounds that you talked about. That’s definitely rolling through in the numbers as we work our way into the third quarter.

It’s really just that that change in demand. And that is kinda in that that 25¢ range as you as you kinda look at what was in the second quarter to the third quarter. And that’s probably, somewhere 60% acetyls, 40% engineered materials as I would look at it right now.

Michael Sison, Analyst, Wells Fargo: Got it. And then a quick follow-up. I know pretty much all your peers have talked about a weaker third and twenty twenty five is coming in pretty disappointing relative to everybody’s expectations. But do you think there’s anything structural in your businesses that maybe some of the earnings power just won’t come back, maybe nylon or parts of EM. I just did I would have never thought folks would be at this level of earnings.

So I just wonder if there’s some structural issues in the businesses or that could be persistent over several years versus just this year.

Scott Richardson, President and Chief Executive Officer, Celanese Corporation: Mike, I’m energized by what our team is executing this year. And I’m energized by what we’re doing on free cash flow. And we are building, I think, the enterprise in a way that is increasing the earnings power, and we are ready when demand changes. And what we’re doing on the cost structure side of things, I mean, just as an example, in acetyls, I think our Western Hemisphere cost structure has never been as low as it is today. With the fixed costs we’ve taken out of the business, the expansions, the low capital debottlenecks that we’ve done, the low carbon footprint products that we have.

In Engineered Materials, for example, the actions that we’re taking, we’re going to be operating on an S and A plus R and D percentage of sales next year in the range of 8%, which is equivalent to what we were doing pre COVID in 2019 in a very different demand environment. And if you kind of normalize and apply that demand environment to today, that S and A plus R and D percentage of sales would be 100 to 200 basis points lower than that eight percent. So the things that we’re doing are going to give us the ability to respond when demand changes. And certainly, there’s pockets of the business that, given where things are at today, are challenged. Are they long term structurally challenged?

I don’t know about that because actions will be taken. And I think for us, we’re really working to ensure that we don’t have a set it and forget it mentality on how we operate the company. There’s always more that can be done. And if, you know, business isn’t performing, then you’ve gotta take action. You’ve gotta drive change.

And so that’s just that action orientation is really kinda what we’re building into everything that we’re doing here.

Michael Sison, Analyst, Wells Fargo: Thank you.

Daryl, Conference Operator: Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Vincent Andrews with Morgan Stanley. Please proceed with your questions.

Vincent Andrews, Analyst, Morgan Stanley: Thank you. Good morning. Scott, wondered if you have any thoughts on the acetic acid business in China and some of the anti involution policies that have been proposed. Are you seeing or hearing or thinking that there could be some capacity rationalization in the Chinese market as a function of those policies?

Scott Richardson, President and Chief Executive Officer, Celanese Corporation: Vincent, I can’t speculate what will or won’t happen in the market. But definitely where things are at today, it’s extremely challenging, I think, the entire industry. And I think certainly China has taken note of that and the anti involution policies that really started to get talked about more a few weeks ago. Certainly in those kind of more established concentrated less fragmented spaces are certainly already seeing change. I mean coal, for example, coal pricing has gone up three weeks in a row.

I think it’s up about 5% in the last month. And so I think those first order elements, know, are already seeing, elements of that. How that applies then into our businesses, in particular acetic acid, I don’t know yet. But certainly coal as an indicator is going to drive cost up over time for everyone. And so I do think those dynamics, I think it’s important that we continue to stay close to what’s happening in markets.

We’re gonna keep trying things. And we’re gonna keep finding ways at which to pivot and find pockets of value. And that’s probably gonna be different today than it’s going to be next week. But the team has to kind of work that daily operational execution model in order to be successful.

Salvator Tiano, Analyst, Bank of America: Okay. And then just

Vincent Andrews, Analyst, Morgan Stanley: as a follow-up, there was a call out in the prepared remarks about medical being weak and I recall that there had been overstocking during COVID and that seemed to normalize last year. So what is there anything in particular that’s causing that end market to be a little sluggish right now?

Scott Richardson, President and Chief Executive Officer, Celanese Corporation: No, Vincent. It’s just really timing. We had a little stronger volumes early in the year than maybe what we’re seeing right now. But fundamentally no. Demand is stronger today than it was coming out of COVID for sure.

And I don’t everything that we see doesn’t indicate inventory through the chain and end use demand continues to be pretty stable there.

Salvator Tiano, Analyst, Bank of America: Okay. Thanks very much.

Daryl, Conference Operator: Thank you. Our next questions come from the line of Josh Spector with UBS. Please proceed with your questions.

Josh Spector, Analyst, UBS: Yes. Hi. Good morning. I had a follow-up on the earnings power, I guess, around the acetyls business. I guess, I mean, that’s kind of been the bigger gap in 2Q and 3Q.

If you can maybe break apart the pieces between you talked about some of the tow destocking impacts. Sounds like you’re expecting that to go on in the rest of the year. But then like the core acetyls earnings power, is it utilizations or demand or something that really needs to drive this? And how much is there in your control to maybe lift that earnings versus you need to wait on the market, noting that you shut down or at least delayed the start back up of your Frankfurt facility, you’re batching Singapore. Is there more that needs to be done or some impaired earnings on that side of the stream that needs more actions?

Or is it all market in your view? Thanks.

Scott Richardson, President and Chief Executive Officer, Celanese Corporation: Josh, the team is driving greater than 20% EBITDA in a business that’s probably seeing Western Hemisphere demand at the lowest level it’s been in twenty years. And that’s certainly not easy to do. As we look at the business, in particular, tow, we did see higher volumes in the second quarter than we saw in the first. It just wasn’t as strong as what we had originally called out. And, you know, the order book indicates that kind of those q two volumes are gonna be pretty similar into the third quarter.

We’re seeing kind of that with the weakness I talked about earlier in in in the other acetyl products in in the Western Hemisphere. I do think this is about volume in the Western Hemisphere. I mean, given the overcapacity in Asia, I mean, we’re gonna continue to find ways, as I mentioned earlier, to to squeeze out more profit there. But for us, this really is about profitability in the Western Hemisphere. And given how volume is so weak, we do believe that’s an area that will change over time.

And just to kind of give you an idea of that earnings power and where things are at, a 3% volume change in just the Western Hemisphere non tow in this business is about $10,000,000 per quarter. So it’s not insignificant. Just as a to give you a rule of thumb, in Engineered Materials, a 3% improvement in that business on a global basis is about $15,000,000 a quarter. So real earnings power from very small volume changes in in where these businesses can have success going forward. And and we’re only improving that equation with the with the cost structure changes that we’re making over time here.

Josh Spector, Analyst, UBS: Okay. Thank you.

Daryl, Conference Operator: Thank you. Our next questions come from the line of Salvator Tiano with Bank of America. Please proceed with your questions.

Salvator Tiano, Analyst, Bank of America: Yes. Thank you very much.

Scott Richardson, President and Chief Executive Officer, Celanese Corporation: So firstly,

Salvator Tiano, Analyst, Bank of America: I wanted to check specifically as we think about Q4. How should we think about any buckets on earnings Q4 versus Q3? I think you mentioned that there could be some inventory reduction initiatives still flowing through, but can you clarify what we should expect there either item such as seasonality, turnarounds, etcetera? So how should we frame Q4 versus Q3?

Scott Richardson, President and Chief Executive Officer, Celanese Corporation: Yes. Thanks, Al. I think it’s important to understand the visibility right now is very short in both businesses. Historically, Acetyl’s visibility of the order book was kind of two to four weeks. Today, it’s very much on the short end of that.

Historically, in Engineered Materials, the visibility and confidence in the order book could be four to six weeks. Today, would say the visibility in Engineered Materials is more like two weeks of orders you can really count on. And so that’s hard to predict what’s going to happen in the fourth quarter. We have not seen normal seasonality so far year to date in anything right now. So it’s hard to say, are we going to see real normal seasonality or not?

The inventory value chain is extremely light. We do not see big pockets of inventory really anywhere in the value chain in the areas where we have stronger profitability. Chuck did mention a little bit of inventory draw in the fourth quarter. It’s likely on a sequential basis to be actually a positive when compared to the third quarter because it will be then less than what we’re seeing here in Q3 based upon how we’re seeing things right now from a demand perspective. So I do think it’s hard to say what seasonality will be, but I don’t think it’s unrealistic to think that Q4 would be similar to what we’re seeing in the third quarter or even better depending on how things materialize from a demand perspective.

Salvator Tiano, Analyst, Bank of America: Perfect. Thank you. And I want to also ask a little bit about the balance sheet. And specifically, we saw that you extended your revolver to 2,030, it’s $1,750,000,000 So is it fair to say that right now, we do the math, 26,000,027 million dollars maturities, they could fully be addressed by everything you have on hand cash, free cash flow and the revolver? Or is there anything else we’re missing?

And is there any chance any reason why you cannot draw on the entire $1,750,000,000 for example to repay your 2027 bonds?

Chuck Kyrish, Chief Financial Officer, Celanese Corporation: Hey, Sal. Look, we’re focusing on paying down our debt maturities through 2027 with our free cash flow generation and then our $1,000,000,000 of divestiture proceeds. We’re not relying on our revolver to pay off those maturities. We have used our revolver temporarily from time to time for a short term bridge, but then have quickly paid that off. So I would think about paying down those maturity through twenty seventh through our own cash generation and not using the revolver.

Now we know that sometimes our cash generation in any given year can be a little bit back end loaded. So we’ll continue to be prudent and opportunistic in the debt capital markets if we need any further refinancing transactions to kind of bridge some of that payment. But think about those ’26 and ’27 through our own cash generation.

Salvator Tiano, Analyst, Bank of America: Great. Thank you very much.

Daryl, Conference Operator: Thank you. Our next questions come from the line of Patrick Cunningham with Citi. Please proceed with your questions.

Bill Cunningham, Vice President of Investor Relations, Celanese Corporation0: Hi, good morning. Thanks for taking my questions. Pretty consistent price declines in ad steel chain over the past several quarters. Is the bulk of this from just China oversupply and the impact from the upstream pieces of the portfolio? And how would you characterize the optionality model and success for downstream sales?

Have you been getting both price and volume there relatively consistently?

Scott Richardson, President and Chief Executive Officer, Celanese Corporation: Yes. Thanks, Patrick. I think on the downstream sales, pricing has been harder to get there. I mean, think that’s been more about volume and finding ways at which to create new opportunities in certain spaces, some out of kind substitution as well. We’ve seen success, particularly in parts of Asia there.

I mean there definitely has been some margin compression that we’ve seen since the beginning of the year on some products from a margin perspective in China. And then and we’ve seen a little bit in certain pockets in the Western Hemisphere, but that’s largely been more of a volume story as opposed to a margin decline.

Bill Cunningham, Vice President of Investor Relations, Celanese Corporation0: Understood. And then just on the free cash flow outlook, can you help us understand what’s driving the reiterated 700,000,000 to $800,000,000 there? If we take a further leg down here, do you think you can manage to the low end of that range with further working capital actions?

Chuck Kyrish, Chief Financial Officer, Celanese Corporation: Yes. As we entered the year, we looked at a number of demand scenarios and this goes back to Q4 of last year even. And the commensurate inventory actions around each of those demand scenarios to generate 7,000,000 to 800,000,000 of free cash flow. So yes, as you mentioned, as we’ve kind of seen demand soften here, we’re prepared to take further those actions and increase the benefit from inventory working capital and current are confident in that 700 to 800,000,000 in any demand scenario.

Scott Richardson, President and Chief Executive Officer, Celanese Corporation: I also think Patrick, it’s important to clarify, I mean, particularly in the second quarter here, the majority of that free cash flow was generated from operations, not from working capital. Our cash generation is coming from operating cash flow is strong, even despite the fact that we have $650,000,000 to $700,000,000 of interest expense this year. And I think it’s that conversion to cash, which is really shows the strength of these operating And that is sustainable. And given that we do believe we’re on a multiyear journey of inventory in the Engineered Materials business, even that working capital piece going into 2026 is sustainable. So we feel really good about the cash generation here, and we’re gonna be continuing to find ways at which to maximize, you know, how much cash we’re generating from operations.

Bill Cunningham, Vice President of Investor Relations, Celanese Corporation0: Very helpful. Thank you so much.

Daryl, Conference Operator: Thank you. Our next questions come from the line of Frank Mitsch with Fermium Research. Please proceed with your questions.

Bill Cunningham, Vice President of Investor Relations, Celanese Corporation1: Good morning. Scott, you gave some interesting rules of thumb regarding volume movements impacts on acetyls and EM. Just curious where do you think we are right now on a volume basis relative to historic norms in both of those segments?

Scott Richardson, President and Chief Executive Officer, Celanese Corporation: We’re significantly lower, Frank. I mean, I called out earlier, I think we’re at, at least in the Western Hemisphere in acetyl demand, we’re probably at the lowest levels we’ve seen in twenty years. Engineered Materials certainly is weak. I think first half volumes versus first half last year even, I think we’re down 5% to 6% volumetrically. So I mean if you just kind of think about those, those are big significant changes that we’ve seen in the business.

Now I know it’s just rhetoric right now, but what we are hearing from our customers is that people are looking more at manufacturing in The U. S. We’re hearing from customers that going forward now when this actually hits, we don’t know, but the people are looking at making more cars in The U. S. People are looking at making more appliances in The U.

S. We are seeing even the German automakers now rolling out their next wave of electric vehicles, which have a really strong ability to win, particularly in the Western Hemisphere. Those things will be really beneficial for our businesses. On the acetyl side of things, whether it’s interest rates or more government spending in Europe or stability in Eastern Europe, any catalyst like that, it’s our lowest cost part of the world, our highest margin business, we’re going to be able to be able to capture that demand relatively quickly. And so our focus right now is really on, in this low demand environment, what are we doing to ready to ensure that every dollar or every ton we sell in the future is worth more than it was in the past.

Bill Cunningham, Vice President of Investor Relations, Celanese Corporation1: Got you. That’s very helpful. I must tell you, I was surprised to hear the low level of visibility on your order book seemed pretty surprising. So to that end, without much visibility, just curious as to what the general thinking is in terms of the low end or the high end of that $1.1 to 1.4 range for the third quarter? What sort of expectations are embedded on both sides of that?

Scott Richardson, President and Chief Executive Officer, Celanese Corporation: Frank, us, I mean, the controllable actions that we’re taking and the things that are rolling through the P and L already do give me confidence. Now certainly, where demand could pivot here in the last six weeks of the quarter can go a number of different directions. But I think where we’re performing from a controllable perspective certainly gives me confidence in our guide right now. And we have to kind of take that mentality and keep that focus going forward. The good thing for us as well is now we’re multiple years into this Engineered Materials integration, for example, which means we’re now finally starting to get historical Celanese products on M and M assets and historical M and M products on Celanese assets, which gives us a lot better cost to serve.

It has kind of given us the ability to lower the inventory. But what it also does is it gives us the ability to do more make products. And so it’s less inventory that we have to carry so we can respond to that demand. And so it’s those types of things that I think we’re being a lot more efficient with the business broadly, which does give me confidence that no matter what happens with demand, we can find a way to at least hit our cash flow numbers.

Bill Cunningham, Vice President of Investor Relations, Celanese Corporation1: Thank you so much.

Daryl, Conference Operator: Thank you. Our next questions come from the line of Aleksey Yefremov with KeyBanc Capital Markets. Please proceed with your questions.

Bill Cunningham, Vice President of Investor Relations, Celanese Corporation2: Thanks. Good morning. Scott, I wanted to ask you about this demand pattern of stronger second quarter, weaker third quarter in EM. Do you have a view of what’s sort of underlying reason for this? Is this tariff timing?

Is this just weak on production schedules or consumer? Or any color here would be great.

Scott Richardson, President and Chief Executive Officer, Celanese Corporation: Alexei, I hate to do this to you, but your line kind of cut out for us on my end. So do you mind repeating your question for me?

Bill Cunningham, Vice President of Investor Relations, Celanese Corporation2: Yes, sorry. Just underlying reasons for stronger 2Q and weaker 3Q in Engineered Materials, Is it tariff or something else?

Scott Richardson, President and Chief Executive Officer, Celanese Corporation: Look, I think it’s hard to say how much is really driven by tariffs. I think some of the order timing, on volumes that for products that were ordered in China that are made in The U. S. That’s probably the majority of that kind of 10,000,000 to $15,000,000 or so that we saw that we think kind of moved into the second quarter. I would characterize demand right now really across both businesses is uncertain.

And that’s what we hear from our customers. And so in that time, what customers are doing is they’re lowering their inventories. And you’ve seen obviously a host of announcements in our sector here this quarter and from our downstream customers and almost everyone is pulling back on inventories. And when they pull back on inventories, it’s going to certainly impact how much product we end up selling. And I think it’s that uncertainty and whether it’s tariffs or, you know, geopolitical reasons, you know, people are just certainly being a lot more prudent.

Now, we saw this as we entered the year. And, you know, as we entered the year, we knew it was gonna be about cash and lowering inventory. And so that’s kind of how we’ve been operating. And again, as I said earlier, I’m really proud of the actions our team has been taking to really focus on reducing our cost structure and generating cash.

Bill Cunningham, Vice President of Investor Relations, Celanese Corporation2: Thanks, Scott. And then FilterToe, how much certainty do you have that this is not a share loss but a destock? How much visibility do you have in these competitive dynamics?

Scott Richardson, President and Chief Executive Officer, Celanese Corporation: From the visibility we’ve seen thus far, Alexei, I don’t think we’ve seen significant share loss. I mean there’s some additional capacity that’s being sold in the market. It’s not a new entrant, but just some additional debottleneck capacity that’s in the market. But that’s not really impacting our demand per se. I think where it’s having impact is customers don’t need to hold as much inventory and at least that’s the perception right now.

And so I think people have been comfortable operating at lower inventory levels, and that’s kind of what materialized through the second quarter.

Daryl, Conference Operator: Our next questions come from the line of Arun Viswanathan with RBC Capital Markets. Please proceed with your questions.

Bill Cunningham, Vice President of Investor Relations, Celanese Corporation3: Great. Thanks for taking my question. I hope you guys are well. I want to go back to the bridge, Scott, that you provided from $1.25 to $2 I think you said the inventory actions that was maybe $0.25 to $0.30 The current cost programs was $00 to $0.15 and that got you to $1.65 So I think you then said that that would have gotten you to $2 were not for the volume shortfall and then there are the four controllable. So I guess, if volumes do come back, would normalized volumes get you the zero three five dollars or given that volumes are at twenty year lows, would normalized volumes get you closer to maybe $3 And then with your controllables, you maybe have like very, very long term line of sight to north of $3 Is that the right way to think about it?

What was the volume kind of shortfall from a normalized perspective?

Scott Richardson, President and Chief Executive Officer, Celanese Corporation: Arun, we’re waking up every day and just trying to put one foot in front of the other. We’ve gotta look at what’s in front of us right now. And our next milestone is $2. And once we hit $2, then we’ll set the next milestone for where things are. And and we’ve been building a plan here that to get to that $2 per quarter level that is through controllable actions, as I kind of walked through.

The walk I had done earlier in the year got you in that one point seven zero one point eight zero range, keeping Q2 volumes flat and through the balance of the year. And that’s not what we’re seeing right now. It’s hard to say what normalized volumes are right now, but just Q2 volumes and that dynamic is worth about $25.30 cents. So it kinda gets you into that range certainly, but we’re not gonna count on that. We have to continue to work the controllable items that we have in front of us to get to that level.

And if demand is there, we’re gonna be poised to capture it.

Bill Cunningham, Vice President of Investor Relations, Celanese Corporation3: Okay. That’s helpful. And then just as a quick follow-up, I think the other actions you mentioned, I get the additional costs, but I just wanted to ask about the second and fourth item. So the second item, I think you mentioned really harnessing some of your value based programs.

Daryl, Conference Operator: Could you just provide a

Bill Cunningham, Vice President of Investor Relations, Celanese Corporation3: little bit more detail there? And then similarly on the acetyl chain, is the uplift that you see there going to require a better construction and paints environment? Or what would you say would lead to better acetyl chain results?

Scott Richardson, President and Chief Executive Officer, Celanese Corporation: Yes. Let me hit that point first. I mean, certainly, the paints, coatings, construction demand in the Western Hemisphere that we’re seeing is extremely weak. And so any change there would be pretty attractive from an incremental perspective given that rule of thumb that I mentioned earlier. That’s probably the weakest part of the business versus today versus when we started the year.

And so certainly, any change that we would see there and anything to catalyze demand on that side of things would be extremely beneficial just because that is our highest margin area. When it comes to high impact programs in the Engineered Materials business, I mean, we are committed to broadening and diversifying the business, finding additional pockets of opportunity outside of automotive, within the automotive business. And we have a lot of different examples of the things that the team is working on. And the non auto, that could be things like drug delivery, performance footwear, fibers, hydrogen clean energy, oil and gas. I mean, these are spaces where we’ve had wins recently, nice wins.

And it’s about multiplying those wins. In automotive, know, EV propulsion, batteries, cooling, advanced suspension systems. These are all unique areas where our products fit extremely well and where we’re gaining traction. Now some of those auto opportunities take longer. So it is really about accelerating kind of the full pipeline of opportunities in hips to ensure that as we get into 2026, we have new demand materializing to the bottom line.

Salvator Tiano, Analyst, Bank of America: Thanks.

Daryl, Conference Operator: Thank you. Our next questions come from the line of Hassan Ahmed with Alembic Global. Please proceed with your questions.

Bill Cunningham, Vice President of Investor Relations, Celanese Corporation4: Good morning, Scott. Appreciate the details in the presentation you gave around the acetyls chain. And over the years, showing us how you’ve imparted sort of earnings stability and the like and also how 70% now of your revs come from the Western Hemisphere and 70% of those are contracted out. And you’re obviously seeing that even in the near term results, right? I mean, the guidance that you gave for Q3 for acetyl chain relatively flat with Q2.

So my question is, if you sort of take that model and try to incorporate those best practices within the EM side, how would it look? Particularly in light of some of the comments that you just made about hearing rumblings about manufacturing moving more to the Western Hemisphere and the like?

Scott Richardson, President and Chief Executive Officer, Celanese Corporation: Certainly, there’s areas of Engineered Materials, Sasan, that have elements of the Acetyls business, particularly in standard grade materials. Areas like palm, our polyester business, nylon, the standard spaces do have some of those kind of daily operational elements. And the Engineered Materials team really is looking at the segments of the business within each product line on how we drive and compete. And I think nylon is a perfect example of using some of those elements in looking at do we make versus buy. Do we buy polymer from the market and compound for standard compounded products because that gives us a lower cost structure.

Do we find different ways to buy materials cheaper otherwise? Do we pivot materials to our lower cost elements of production? And we’ve done some of that through the shutdowns of higher cost capacity that we’ve done in maximizing production in our lowest cost assets. And so there definitely are elements there. Our U.

S. Footprint that we have in both businesses is extremely low cost and it is advantaged. And so as we see demand pivot back to The US, if that occurs, you know, I think we’re as well positioned as anyone in our competitive landscapes to be able to capture that demand very quickly.

Bill Cunningham, Vice President of Investor Relations, Celanese Corporation4: Very helpful, Scott. And as a follow-up, I mean, the macro continues to weaken, fair degree of uncertainty in the marketplace. And obviously, the chemical industry sort of valuations keep coming down as well. Where do you guys stand with regards to the $1,000,000,000 in divestiture that you guys had sort of flagged to sort of accomplish within the next two point five years?

Scott Richardson, President and Chief Executive Officer, Celanese Corporation: Thanks Hassan. The MicroMax process we announced publicly a quarter ago is going very well. We have worked our way through the first round of bids. We narrowed that down a nice diverse group for the second round. Management presentations are completed.

We’ve we’re working through site visits and expert calls and kind of fully through the diligence process right now. And we expect to have second round bids in the next month or so. And then we’ll narrow that further to a third round and work to conclusion, we think, at some point here in the second half of the year. So we feel really good about the MicroMax process. You know, I actually asked the head of m and a yesterday, as a matter of fact, and I said, you feel more confident today in our non MicroMax projects than you did a quarter ago?

And he said, absolutely. And I do think we’ve seen some traction there. I mean a lot of the deals we’re working there are a little more complex. Some are with our joint ventures and those are harder to get done. And so they do take longer, but I do think the work the team is doing to keep the focus on those with the highest degree of profitability, I would say we feel more confident in that today than we maybe did a few months ago.

Bill Cunningham, Vice President of Investor Relations, Celanese Corporation4: Very helpful, Scott. Thank you so much.

Daryl, Conference Operator: Thank you. Our next questions come from the line of John Roberts with Mizuho Securities. Please proceed with your questions.

Bill Cunningham, Vice President of Investor Relations, Celanese Corporation5: Thank you. Selling third party acetic, what you used to call parlay, was a core part of the acetic acid strategy. Is the lower third party sales something structural here just the industry has changed enough that it doesn’t make sense? Or is it just a cyclical decline because it requires working capital, which maybe you don’t want to extend right now? Or maybe there’s just there’s less margin obviously at lower prices.

So how much of this third party decline, which used to be part of the core is cyclical versus structural?

Scott Richardson, President and Chief Executive Officer, Celanese Corporation: John, you’ve covered us for a long time and you know that this business changes every single day. And is it structural? No, I don’t think it’s structural. It may take a while for that dynamic to change, but there’s a lot of moving parts here and margins are really at unsustainable level. So I do think that’s why you’re seeing us make the choices that we’re making that further pivot downstream.

And I think the work that we’ve done there and debottlenecking capacity downstream has given us another outlet so that we’re not so reliant. And ten, fifteen years ago, we were extremely reliant on selling third party acetic acid and we’re not today. And that business in some years was well over 50% of the end products that we’re selling and now it’s less than 30%. So I think you know, for us today, I think having more diversity in the business is a good thing. Certainly, we’d like acetic acid margins to be better than they are.

But this things pivot here. And and we’re gonna make sure that we continue to pivot with the market as opportunities present themselves.

Bill Cunningham, Vice President of Investor Relations, Celanese Corporation5: And then can can you say that the MicroMax deal will be simple all cash or do you think there might be an earn out or something a little bit more complicated with that deal?

Scott Richardson, President and Chief Executive Officer, Celanese Corporation: We’re working deals, John, to to keep the complexity at a minimum on the deals that we’re doing. And I think for for us right now, we’re we’re quite confident that that we won’t have an outcome that’s super complex.

Bill Cunningham, Vice President of Investor Relations, Celanese Corporation: Thank you. Yeah. We’ll make the next question, our last one, please.

Daryl, Conference Operator: Thank you. Our final questions will come from the line of Matthew Blair with Tudor, Pickering and Holt. Please proceed with your questions.

Bill Cunningham, Vice President of Investor Relations, Celanese Corporation3: Great. Thank you and good morning. You mentioned autos weakening,

Ghansham Panjabi, Analyst, Baird: but could

Bill Cunningham, Vice President of Investor Relations, Celanese Corporation3: you talk a little bit about the mix within autos? Historically, Celanese has enjoyed some nice tailwinds from things like hybrids and EVs. Are those tailwinds still present? Or are they starting to reverse?

Scott Richardson, President and Chief Executive Officer, Celanese Corporation: We’re not seeing a big reversal right now. Certainly, with demand pulling back in China, our sales into EVs on a global basis are probably a little bit less today just because of more where the end use demand is. Electric vehicles are definitely here to stay. I think each region is going to be a little bit different. Certainly, EVs are going to play a big role in Europe.

And with the future model launches that I think we’re going to see in ’26 and beyond, EVs and that is a powertrain of choice is going to be critically important for us. And we feel really good about the portfolio that we have developing from a pipeline perspective there. In The U. S, it’s going to be a mixture. There’s going to be ICE, there’s going to be hybrids and electric.

And so we have to make sure that we’re remaining nimble and flexible with our customers so that we can meet those needs because I do think it’s going to be a changing mix here for

Bill Cunningham, Vice President of Investor Relations, Celanese Corporation: Okay. Well, thank you everyone very much. We’d like to thank everyone for listening today. As always, we’re available after the call for any follow-up questions. Daryl, please go ahead and close-up the call.

Daryl, Conference Operator: Thank you, ladies and gentlemen. We appreciate your participation. This does conclude today’s teleconference. Please disconnect your lines at this time and enjoy the rest of your day.

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