Eastman Announces Third-Quarter 2025 Financial Results

Eastman Chemical Company (NYSE:EMN) announced its third-quarter 2025 financial results.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20251103079329/en/

• Delivered strong operating cash flow of $402 million consistent with the prior-year quarter, underscoring our commitment to cash generation.
• Demonstrated significant progress on inventory actions, with an approximately $200 million reduction from second-quarter 2025 levels.
• Continued commercial excellence in defending the value of our products in a weakening economic environment.
• Remain on track to reduce cost structure by more than $75 million, net of inflation, in 2025 and an additional ~$100 million, net of inflation, in 2026.
• Continued commercial ramp-up in circular economy platform with strong operational performance.
• Returned $146 million to shareholders through dividends and share repurchases.

*For non-core items excluded from adjusted earnings and for adjusted provision for income taxes, segment adjusted EBIT margins, and net debt, reconciliations to reported company and segment earnings and total borrowings for all periods presented in this release, see Tables 3A, 3B, 4A, and 6.

"Our third-quarter financial results reflect the actions we took to reduce inventory and prioritize cash generation," said Mark Costa, Board Chair and CEO. "With the weak macroeconomic environment persisting, our focus on cash generation, disciplined capital allocation, and structural cost reduction is more important than ever. As expected, in the third quarter we realized a slowdown in orders due to normal seasonality and customers unwinding inventory that was prepositioned to avoid tariff risk in a weakening consumer environment. In this context, our teams demonstrated continued commercial excellence in defending both prices and market share. We also made good progress on securing Renew rPET contracts for a significant ramp up in sales volume next year. We are taking a number of actions expected to create earnings growth next year and position the company for a strong recovery when the economy stabilizes."

Corporate Results 3Q 2025 versus 3Q 2024

Sales revenue decreased 11 percent due to 10 percent lower sales volume/mix and 1 percent lower selling prices. The lower sales volume/mix was driven by weakness in consumer discretionary end markets as well as customer unwinding of tariff-related inventory prepositioned in the first half of the year, especially in Advanced Materials and Fibers.

EBIT decreased primarily due to lower sales volume/mix across all operating segments and substantially lower asset utilization to drive cash generation. Price-cost was stable in our specialty businesses, while Chemical Intermediates saw competitive spread compression. The utilization headwind was modestly higher than expected due to more aggressive inventory management actions. These factors were partially offset by actions to lower our cost structure.

Segment Results 3Q 2025 versus 3Q 2024

Advanced Materials – Sales revenue decreased 7 percent due to lower sales volume/mix.

The lower sales volume/mix in specialty plastics was primarily due to weakness in high-value consumer discretionary end markets, as well as customers leveraging prepositioned inventory to minimize the impact of tariffs on consumer prices and adjust to consumer weakness. Underlying trends in automotive sales were relatively stable for our advanced interlayers product line and slightly better than originally expected, but auto aftermarket sales in our performance films product line were lower as consumers are choosing not to buy accessories or are trading down due to affordability issues. Prices were stable due to commercial excellence in defending price and market share.

EBIT decreased due to lower sales volume/mix, lower asset utilization, including inventory reduction actions, and higher energy and tariff costs.

Additives & Functional Products – Sales revenue decreased 4 percent due to 8 percent lower sales volume/mix, partially offset by 3 percent higher selling prices.

Lower sales volume/mix was primarily driven by the timing of heat transfer fluid project completions and continued weak demand in the building and construction and auto refinish end markets. Higher selling prices were driven by cost-pass-through contracts.

EBIT was slightly lower as lower sales volume/mix was mostly offset by lower manufacturing costs, including planned maintenance expense.

Fibers – Sales revenue decreased 24 percent due to lower sales volume/mix.

Lower sales volume/mix was driven by lower acetate tow volume due to ongoing customer inventory destocking relative to last year, industry capacity share adjustments, and continued lower textiles sales into China due to the global trade dispute. The quarter was also impacted by acetate tow and textiles customers reducing tariff-related inventory prepositioned in the first half.

EBIT declined due to lower sales volume/mix and higher raw material and energy costs.

Chemical Intermediates – Sales revenue decreased 16 percent due to 8 percent lower sales volume/mix primarily attributed to continued weak market demand in the North American building and construction end market. This resulted in negative mix as North America has much higher margins than exports. Prices were lower by 8 percent due to unfavorable commodity market fundamentals.

EBIT decreased due to lower spreads and lower sales volume/mix.

Cash Flow

In third-quarter 2025, cash provided by operating activities was $402 million compared to $396 million in third-quarter 2024, driven by working capital initiatives primarily including $204 million of inventory reduction. The company returned $146 million to stockholders through dividends and share repurchases. See Table 5. Priorities for uses of available cash include capital expenditures, payment of the quarterly dividend, and net debt reduction.

2025 Outlook

Commenting on the outlook for fourth-quarter and full-year 2025, Costa said: "We expect a greater than normal seasonal decline in volume as the macroeconomic environment continues to be challenging, especially in the consumer discretionary markets (building and construction, consumer durables and auto aftermarket). We see signs of increasing consumer caution, including value-oriented trade-down behavior. Our customers through the retailers are also continuing to unwind inventory purchased and prepositioned geographically in the first half of the year to mitigate tariff risks and reduce the impact on consumer prices. We do expect most of this pre-buy inventory to be depleted by end of year.

"Against this dynamic backdrop, we remain focused on controlling what we can, including driving cash flow. We delivered strong cash flow in the third quarter with our inventory actions and aggressive cost management. We expect price-cost stability, as our commercial teams continue to demonstrate excellence in defending our prices and market share, based on the innovative value of our products. We also expect a modest increase in revenue from the Kingsport methanolysis facility. We are on track to reduce costs by more than $75 million, net of inflation, and also plan to build on this progress by reducing structural costs by approximately $100 million, net of inflation, in 2026. We expect lower planned shutdown costs and a modest asset utilization tailwind, after substantially completing our inventory reduction actions in third quarter. When putting these factors together, we project adjusted earnings per share for full-year 2025 to be between $5.40 and $5.65 and for operating cash flow to approach $1 billion."

The full-year 2025 projected adjusted diluted EPS excludes any non-core, unusual, or nonrecurring items. Our financial results forecasts do not include non-core items (such as mark-to-market pension and other postretirement benefit gain or loss, and asset impairments and restructuring charges) or any unusual or non-recurring items because we are unable to predict with reasonable certainty the financial impact of such items. These items are uncertain and depend on various factors, and we are unable to reconcile projected adjusted diluted EPS excluding non-core and any unusual or non-recurring items to reported GAAP diluted EPS without unreasonable efforts.

Forward-Looking Statements

The information in this release and other statements by the company may contain forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act (Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended). Forward-looking statements are all statements, other than statements of historical fact, that may be made by Eastman Chemical Company from time to time. In some cases, you can identify forward-looking statements by terminology such as "anticipates," "believes," "estimates," "expects," "intends," "may," "plans," "projects," "forecasts," "will," "would," "could," and similar expressions, or expressions of the negative of these terms. Forward-looking statements may relate to, among other items: projections and estimates of earnings, revenues, volumes, pricing, margins, cost reductions, expenses, taxes, liquidity, capital expenditures, cash flow, supply and demand, volume, price, cost, margin and sales, growth opportunities, dividends, share repurchases or other financial items, statements of management's plans, strategies and objectives for future operations, and statements regarding future economic, industry or market conditions or performance. Such projections and estimates are based upon certain preliminary information, internal estimates, and management assumptions, expectations, and plans.

Forward-looking statements and the assumptions underlying them are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties, and actual performance or results could differ materially from expectations expressed in any forward-looking statements if one or more of the underlying assumptions and/or expectations prove to be inaccurate or is unrealized. Forward-looking statements speak only as of the date they are made, and the company undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by the federal securities laws.

Other important assumptions and factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements are detailed in the sections entitled "Risk Factors" and "Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations" in the company's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2024, and as updated in the company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (the "SEC"), which are accessible on the SEC's website at www.sec.gov and the company's website at www.eastman.com.

Financial Measures (Non-GAAP)

In addition to the financial information presented in accordance with Generally Accepted Accounting Principles ("GAAP"), this press release includes the following Non-GAAP financial measures: adjusted EBIT, adjusted EBIT margin, and adjusted earnings per diluted share. We define adjusted EBIT as the GAAP measure EBIT adjusted for non-core, unusual, or non-recurring items. Adjusted earnings per diluted share is defined as the GAAP measure earnings per diluted share adjusted for non-core, unusual, or non-recurring items. Adjusted EBIT margin is defined as adjusted EBIT divided by the GAAP measure sales revenue in the Company's Unaudited Consolidated Statement of Earnings, Comprehensive Income and Retained Earnings for the same periods. Any adjustments described above that are zero for a given period are excluded from the reconciliation tables presented in this release. See the reconciliation tables presented in this release for a detailed reconciliation of Non-GAAP financial measures to the most directly comparable GAAP measure.

We believe that in addition to our results determined in accordance with GAAP, these Non-GAAP financial measures provide useful information to both management and investors in measuring our financial performance and highlight trends in our business that may not otherwise be apparent when relying solely on GAAP measures. These Non-GAAP financial measures provide supplemental information regarding our operating performance that excludes certain gains, losses and non-cash charges that occur relatively infrequently and/or that we consider to be unrelated to our core operations. Non-GAAP financial information is presented for supplemental informational purposes only and should not be considered in isolation or as a substitute for financial information presented in accordance with GAAP. Our presentation of Non-GAAP measures should not be construed as an inference that our future results will be unaffected by unusual or nonrecurring items. Other companies in our industry may calculate these measures differently, which may limit their usefulness as comparative measures.

Conference Call and Webcast Information

Eastman will host a conference call with industry analysts on November 4, 2025, at 8:00 a.m. ET. To listen to the live webcast of the conference call and view the accompanying slides and prepared remarks, go to investors.eastman.com, Events & Presentations. The slides and prepared remarks to be discussed during the call and webcast will be available at investors.eastman.com at approximately 4:15 p.m. ET on November 3, 2025. To listen via telephone, the dial-in number is +1 (833) 470-1428, passcode: 369653. A web replay, a replay in downloadable MP3 format, and the accompanying slides and prepared remarks will be available at investors.eastman.com, Events & Presentations. A telephone replay will be available continuously beginning at approximately 1:00 p.m. Eastern Time, November 4, 2025, through 11:59 p.m. Eastern Time, November 14, 2025, Toll Free at +1 (866) 813-9403, passcode 372027.

Founded in 1920, Eastman is a global specialty materials company that produces a broad range of products found in items people use every day. With the purpose of enhancing the quality of life in a material way, Eastman works with customers to deliver innovative products and solutions while maintaining a commitment to safety and sustainability. The company's innovation-driven growth model takes advantage of world-class technology platforms, deep customer engagement, and differentiated application development to grow its leading positions in attractive end markets such as transportation, building and construction, and consumables. As a globally inclusive company, Eastman employs approximately 14,000 people around the world and serves customers in more than 100 countries. The company had 2024 revenue of approximately $9.4 billion and is headquartered in Kingsport, Tennessee, USA. For more information, visit www.eastman.com.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20251103079329/en/

Media: Tracy Kilgore Addington

423-224-0498 / [email protected]

Investors: Greg Riddle

212-835-1620 / [email protected]