Growing polyethylene demand in Asia and improvements in automotive and durables markets buoyed LyondellBasell’s (LBY, Houston, Texas / USA; www.lyondellbasell.com) third-quarter sales by some 22% to USD 6.78 bn (EUR 5.85 bn) versus the previous three-month period. Turnover, however, fell around 22% year-on-year.

The impact of Covid-19 on air travel has slashed jet fuel use and reduced expectations for the US refinery in Houston, Texas, and the company took an impairment charge of USD 582m. Net income thus fell 64% quarter-on-quarter to USD 114m and 88% versus Q3 2019. Excluding the impairment and inventory valuation benefits, net income nearly doubled on the quarter to USD 427m from USD 226m while EBITDA increased about one-third to USD 888m.

Strong PE demand in North America and Asia combined with hurricane-related production constraints on the US Gulf Coast to drive up the North American PE contract pricing (see Plasteurope.com of 28.08.2020). Quarter-on-quarter, EBITDA for the company’s olefins and polyolefins operations for the Americas nearly doubled to USD 404m, excluding the inventory valuation benefit. For the segment for Europe, Asia and international, EBITDA fell 40% to USD 131m on higher feedstock costs.

EBITDA minus the valuation benefit at the intermediates and derivatives segment doubled to USD 245m, profiting from higher volumes from automotive, construction and furniture end-markets. At the advanced polymer solutions segment, the same profit measure jumped five-fold to USD 117m, driven by higher volumes and margins in the compounding and solutions businesses.