LyondellBasell Industries N.V. (NYSE:LYB) Q2 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

Jeff Zekauskas : I think a couple of years ago, in Advanced Polymer Solutions, you were earning about $300 million. And today, guess the quarterly run rate is about $1 billion, and maybe you’re making $10 million in EBIT. What happened to that business? And in your forecast of $500 million in EBITDA from circular polymers, what EBITDA margin do you expect on that? Or what EBITDA margin does that number still —

Torkel Rhenman: Thank you for the question. On the APS, I covered when we had the Capital Markets Day, I think we’ve really lost the focus on the business and our customers when we went through the integration. And we took out a lot of cost and synergy but this is a business that really requires this customer centricity. It’s a project-based business. You have to have a really good growth pipeline and a very, very good service level and that’s the recognition that I think from the whole integration that we made some mistakes and we really have not put together this transformation plan to deliver what this business can perform. And that’s the journey that we’re on. And I’m confident that we’re going to deliver on it. We’re making good progress. But it is a transformation, it will take up years.

Michael McMurray : And then Jeff, it’s Michael. One of the things that I’d add, if you’re looking at current year results versus historic results, remember, at the start of this year, we removed 2 relatively significant businesses from the APS segment and put it back in O&P. So that’s not an apples-to-apples comparison if you’re looking at this year versus history, just as a reminder.

Peter Vanacker: And to your question, I mean, on the circular business, Jeff. I mean the $500 million in — by 2027 and then the $1 billion by 2030. When we talked about that on the Capital Markets Day, you know that we are talking about 2 million tons of target by 2030. The margins that we talked about, I mean, you can do the back of the [indiscernible] Calculation pretty much is incremental EBITDA on top of the EBITDA that we normally make, I mean, in our crackers. So it gives you a bit of guidance also here. I must say, I mean we’re — we look at the margins that we are creating, I mean, today with that business, you know that since we started the business, we have been able, I mean, to grow the business quite substantially.

Of course, albeit, I mean, still at a low level compared to the overall volumes that we are having in the polyolefins. We see that the margins that we can capture or substantially higher than what we have said, I mean, at the Capital Markets Day. And again, it’s a separate business that is being created. I keep repeating that. Like I said at the Capital Markets Day, with its own supply and demand that has its own value-based pricing mechanisms that we are positioning in the marketplace. So this is not a market where you have a polyolefin plus a premium type of approach.

Operator: Our final question comes from the line of Hassan Ahmed with Alembic Global.

Hassan Ahmed : Just wanted to revisit the earlier question around polyethylene exports out of the U.S. Look, I mean, a lot of this capacity that’s been coming online in the U.S. has been with an eye to the export markets. And as you guys and others have talked about, the European market isn’t looking great. Asia hasn’t rebounded the way one would have expected it to. So I mean, are you seeing a scenario where some of that product that was meant for the export market isn’t making its way to the export markets and potentially is putting further downward pressure on PE pricing in the U.S.?

Peter Vanacker: One of the things, Hassan, that we have seen already since the end of last year, and this has maybe also a bit to do, I mean, with some learnings out of running a business like that in a pandemic environment, is that there has been substantially more disciplined in the marketplace. So just like we, as a leader in the industry, have reduced, I mean, the output instead of pushing products into the market. Others have done, I mean, the same thing. So you see a change, in my view, in terms of behavior compared, I mean, to the history. Ken, anything you want to add?