Collective decline! Performance announcement of chemical giant in 2019

Recently, some foreign oil and chemical giants have announced their performance in 2019. The overall economic and industrial situation has impacted the entire petrochemical industry, a large number of companies' performance has declined, even some industry leaders are not immune. Dow DuPont's net profit attributable to ordinary shareholders in the fourth quarter of 2019 was $179 million, down 62.32% year-on-year, and its operating revenue was $21.512 billion, down 74.11% year-on-year. In fy2019, the net profit attributable to ordinary shareholders was USD - 552 million, down 114.36% year on year, and the operating revenue was USD 21.512 billion, down 74.98% year on year. In the fourth quarter of 2019, ExxonMobil's operating revenue was US $67.173 billion, down 6.57% year on year; in 2019, its operating revenue was US $264.938 billion, down 8.71% year on year; its net profit was US $14.34 billion, down 31.19% year on year. The lower profit margin (especially overseas profit margin) is the main reason for the decline of revenue in the chemical sector and downstream business. Chief executive Darren Woods said the short-term supply of downstream and chemical businesses affected profits and financial performance, and the company will continue to focus on improving the underlying business, improving efficiency and optimizing the value of its portfolio. Shell's revenue in the fourth quarter of 2019 was $84.06 billion, down 17.82% year-on-year; its net profit was $965 million, down 83% year-on-year.

In 2019, the total revenue was US $344.877 billion, down 11.2% year on year; the net profit was US $15.845 billion, down 32% year on year. Total's net profit in the fourth quarter of 2019 was $2649 million, compared with $1.18 billion in the same period in 2018. Net profit in fy19f was $11.267 billion (2018: $11.446 billion); operating revenue in 2019 was $176249 million, a slight decrease of 4.27% compared with $184106 million in 2018. Patrick pouyanne, chairman and CEO of the group, commented on the results: "despite a 10% drop in oil prices, a 38% drop in European gas prices, in other words an average 20% drop in the price environment, the company has achieved such results." It is understood that in the upstream, total's projects in Russia, Australia, Nigeria and Angola have brought strong cash flow, driving 9% of this year's production growth, of which LNG has increased by nearly 50%. In the fourth quarter, adjusted net revenue in the refining and chemical sector fell 36%, mainly due to a decline in refining and natural gas production of about 10%. Akzo Nobel's net sales in the fourth quarter of 2019 were 2.242 billion euros, down 3% year-on-year (at a fixed exchange rate); its operating revenue was 173 million euros, up 154% year-on-year. In 2019, the net sales volume was 9.276 billion euros, basically the same as that of the previous year; the operating revenue increased by 39% year-on-year to 841 million euros; driven by pricing measures and cost savings, the adjusted operating revenue increased by 24% year-on-year to 991 million euros. Thierry vanlanker, chief executive of AkzoNobel, said: "we can see from the full year 2019 performance that we have made good progress despite the resistance of rising raw material costs and weakening end market demand. We are steadily delivering on our commitments, with the sale of our specialty chemicals business delivering a return of EUR 6.5 billion to shareholders.

Our wood paint factory with an investment of 50 million euros in the United States has been officially launched, and the acquisition of mapaero has been completed to consolidate our global position in the field of aerospace coatings. " Corning's sales volume in the fourth quarter of 2019 was US $2.82 billion and its core sales volume was US $2.85 billion in accordance with GAAP; the annual GAAP sales volume was US $11.5 billion and its core sales volume was US $11.7 billion. Three businesses in the company's strong business portfolio achieved growth, alleviated the impact of market instability on other businesses, and finally achieved an annual sales growth of 2%. By 2023, Corning is expected to achieve a compound annual growth of 6% - 8% in sales. With the overall decline of the automobile market reaching the middle of a single digit, thanks to the innovative application of Corning's proprietary gasoline particle filter (GPF), the sales volume of the Ministry of environmental science and technology increased by 16% in the whole year. Although the overall market sales of smart phones decreased by 3%, the annual sales of special materials increased by 8% thanks to the innovative application of the industry-leading cover glass. In 2020, the special materials and environmental technology business is expected to continue to grow. Clariant's sales from continuing operations in 2019 rose 3% to CHF 4399 million in local currency terms. EBITDA of continuing operations after special items remained unchanged at CHF 740 million, corresponding to a profit margin of 16.8%. Compared with 2018, the overall net value decreased from CHF 356 million to CHF 38 million. In local currency terms, Clariant's catalyst and natural resources business sales continued to grow throughout 2019, mainly due to the positive contribution of petrochemicals and syngas, as well as the significant expansion of oil and mining services and a small increase in functional minerals. However, the weakness of electronic and electrical industry and automobile industry has a negative impact on the company's additive business sales. Honeywell (Honeywell) achieved sales of $9 billion 496 million in the fourth quarter of 2019. In 2019, the annual sales volume was US $36.709 billion, up 5% year on year, of which the specialty materials and Technology Group achieved US $10.834 billion. It is expected that the company will continue to maintain growth in 2020, with sales of US $36.7 billion to US $37.8 billion and a profit margin of 21%. In the fourth quarter of 2019, PPG achieved a net sales volume of about 3.7 billion US dollars, an increase of about 1% year-on-year; the net profit of continuing operations was 295 million US dollars, and the adjusted net profit was 313 million US dollars. In 2019, the net sales volume of the continuing operations was about US $15.1 billion, down 1.5% year on year, and the net profit was US $1.2 billion.

Michael H. McGarry, chairman and CEO of PPG, said, Despite the negative impact of the global manufacturing industry on many industrial end-user markets, the company has achieved strong performance. In 2019, the company completed a number of acquisition transactions including Huafu, hemorat, dexmet and texstar. It is expected that the functional coatings business will continue to maintain endogenous growth. The coatings business in the industrial sector is expected to achieve sales again in the second half of 2020 Growth. Celanese's 2019 GAAP diluted earnings per share were $6.89 and adjusted earnings per share were $9.53. In 2019, the net sales volume was US $6.3 billion (US $7.15 billion in 2018), including US $2.4 billion for engineering materials, 8% lower than that in 2018; US $640 million for acetate fiber tow, the price remained stable year-on-year, the sales volume decreased 2% year-on-year, mainly due to the continuous and gradual decline of market demand; US $3.4 billion for acetyl product chain, 16% lower than that in 2018. In 2019, the operating profit reached USD 834 million (USD 1334 million in 2018), including USD 450 million for engineering materials, USD 52 million for acetate fiber bundles and USD 678 million for acetyl product chain. Eastman's sales revenue in the fourth quarter of 2019 was US $2.205 billion, EBIT was US $62 million, adjusted EBIT was US $279 million; in the whole year of 2019, Eastman's sales revenue was US $9.273 billion (2018: US $10.151 billion), EBIT was US $1.12 billion (2018: US $1.552 billion), adjusted EBIT was US $1.389 billion (US $1.633 billion in 2018). Among them, the sales revenue of additives and functional materials decreased, mainly due to the decrease of sales volume, the decrease of sales price and the adverse change of exchange rate. The decrease of sales revenue of special materials is due to the slight decrease of sales volume and the adverse change of exchange rate. The decrease of sales revenue of chemical intermediates is mainly due to the decrease of sales price in the whole business area due to the decrease of raw material price and the aggravation of competition. The decrease of sales revenue is mainly due to the decrease of acetic acid tow sales. It is expected that the company will continue to maintain a slow growth in 2020, with a growth rate similar to that in 2019. Huntsman achieved a net income of US $598 million in 2019 (US $650 million in 2018). Adjusted EBITDA was $846 million (2018: $1161 million). The biggest achievement in 2019 is the divestiture of the $2 billion chemical intermediates and surfactants business, enhancing the ability to concentrate resources to develop core downstream businesses. Huntsman also acquired the remaining 50% of the maleic anhydride joint venture from Sasol chemical and opened a new polyurethane compound plant in Dubai. At the beginning of December, the acquisition of Icynene-Lapolla was announced, and the scale of the sprayed foam business will be doubled. On these basis, in 2020, the downstream business will develop steadily, and there is room for continued growth, and opportunities will outweigh challenges.