| Revenue of $1.58B (-3.72% Y/Y) misses by $38.33M
Olin Corporation (OLN) Q1 2026 Earnings Call May 8, 2026 9:00 AM EDT
Company Participants
Steve Keenan – Director of Investor Relations Kenneth Lane – President, CEO & Director Todd Slater – Senior VP & CFO
Kenneth Lane President, CEO & Director
Thanks, Steve, and thank you to everyone for joining us today. We appreciate your time and your continued interest in Olin.
Let’s start on Slide 3 for a review of our first quarter highlights. Amid a very dynamic operating environment in the first quarter, the Olin team executed with discipline, maintaining focus on running our assets safely and reliably, removing structural costs through our Beyond250 program and preserving liquidity, all while staying firmly committed to our value-first commercial approach. That discipline translated into positive results in the first quarter and sets the stage for stronger earnings in the coming months.
During the first quarter, our Epoxy business returned to profitability, and we saw early signs of demand growth for Winchester commercial ammunition. The Iran conflict introduced significant disruption across global petrochemical supply chains. Sharply higher crude oil prices and freight rates disproportionately impacted non-U.S. producers, further reinforcing the structural cost advantage of U.S. Gulf Coast assets such as Olin’s. While these dynamics did not materially benefit our first quarter results due to normal pricing lags, they meaningfully improved the outlook for the second quarter.
Looking ahead, the near-term backdrop has shifted more in favor of U.S. producers than where we were at the beginning of the year. While the duration of Middle East disruptions remains uncertain, we believe the full impact is still unfolding as global supply chains continue to tighten. We’re seeing significant inventory drawdowns and deferred maintenance temporarily helping bridge supply gaps. This creates a more constructive environment as the year progresses. Olin is well positioned to navigate this dynamic environment, supported by our advantaged asset base, improving cost structure and strong cash generation. As regional customers increasingly prioritize security of supply, we have the flexibility to increase operating rates and capture value while maintaining our value-first commercial approach.
Slide 5 provides a look at our Epoxy results. First quarter 2026 marks an important milestone as our Epoxy business returned to profitability. We expect full year Epoxy performance to be meaningfully improved with our return to profitability driven by several well-executed actions. Our Epoxy team has grown our European business in the wake of regional rationalizations. Our new European cost structure is on course to deliver $40 million to $50 million of annual cost improvement. Our formulated solutions portfolio continues to provide a high-margin platform for growth with a strategic focus on electronics, semiconductors and power generation. And our recent plant closure in Guarujá, Brazil, will further improve our cost structure and strengthen supply integration.
In addition to these actions, we are focused on raising prices, which have been significantly depressed due to subsidized Asian supply. Olin announced March and April Epoxy resin price increases totaling more than USD 1,200 per ton in North America and EUR 1,300 per metric ton in Europe. We expect these increases to offset the higher feedstock and transportation costs.
| Revenue of $1.67B (-0.37% Y/Y) beats by $121.30M
Olin Corporation (OLN) Q4 2025 Earnings Call January 30, 2026 9:00 AM EST
Company Participants
Steve Keenan – Director of Investor Relations Kenneth Lane – President, CEO & Director Todd Slater – Senior VP & CFO
Kenneth Lane President, CEO & Director
Thanks, Steve, and thank you to everyone for joining us today. Let’s start with Slide 3 and review our fourth quarter highlights. As we previously announced, our fourth quarter came in significantly below our expectations.
In December, we experienced operational issues related to an extended turnaround of our Freeport, Texas chlorinated organics asset and third-party raw material supply constraints, both of which impacted our chlor-alkali assets. At the same time, we also experienced a sharp decline in chlorine pipeline demand in an already seasonally weaker quarter.
During the quarter, we were able to preserve our ECU values by staying disciplined with our value-first commercial approach, and we also announced the long-term EDC supply agreement with Braskem, which provides a higher value to both parties by integrating the low-cost producer of EDC with the leader in PVC in Brazil.
In addition, we’ve expanded our infrastructure footprint in Brazil, which enables us to grow our caustic sales there in 2026. In our Epoxy business, we were able to contract for significant growth in our European business, which we’ll begin to benefit from in the first quarter of 2026.
This is a result of our commercial team’s successful strategy to position Olin as the last integrated supplier of Epoxy in Europe, providing reliable, secure supply to local customers in the face of continued headwinds from subsidized Asian producers.
Let’s turn to Slide 4 for a closer look at our chlor-alkali products and Vinyls results. Macro conditions remain challenging. Merchant chlorine demand remains under pressure through this extended trough as subsidized Asian chlorine derivatives flood export markets. Since 2019, China exports of titanium dioxide, urethanes, epoxies, crop protection chemicals and PVC have grown 300% to 600% placing significant pressure on U.S. chlorine derivative customers.
As you would expect in a trough environment, we are already seeing chlor-alkali capacity rationalization in Europe, Latin America and the U.S., which should accelerate operating rates as demand recovers. Olin has done a great job of preserving our ECU values and remains committed to our value-first approach, and we are well positioned when markets recover from the trough.
As we look ahead to the first quarter, we’ll continue to face headwinds related to power and raw materials. As a result of winter storm Fern, we proactively shut down several of our Gulf Coast assets, which will increase our first quarter costs. In addition, we’ll see higher turnaround costs as we begin our VCM turnaround at our Freeport, Texas site. This is the single largest turnaround that Olin executes and occurs every 3 years.
In the near term, Olin faces stranded costs of approximately $70 million, resulting from Dow’s recent closure of their Freeport propylene oxide plant. This cost burden will be offset by our Beyond 250 structural cost reductions, which I’ll discuss shortly.
Now let’s turn to Slide 5 for a look at our Epoxy results. Our fourth quarter Epoxy results sequentially increased due to improved product mix, allylics and aromatics margins, partially offset by higher turnaround and seasonally lower demand. As we look ahead to the first quarter, we do expect our Epoxy business to return to profitability, although at a low level. This will be realized through actions we have taken by growing our participation in the European market realizing lower costs at our Stade, Germany site and lower turnaround costs.
As we look out further, structural changes in our cost position, recent European epoxy chain plant closures and continued growth in our formulated solutions portfolio will support a return to profitability for 2026 as well.
Over the past 3 years, Olin’s Epoxy business has remained focused on cost reductions. In that time, we’ve reduced our global epoxy cash costs by about 19%. Our most recent action was this month’s closure of our Guarujá, Brazil epoxy plant. This shutdown is expected to deliver $10 million of annual structural savings.
Also in 2025, we continue to deliver on our formulated solutions sales growth. These solutions enable AI chips to better manage heat and conductivity that allow lightweight wind blades to exceed 500 feet in length and that serves as adhesives in some of the most challenging environments and application. We will continue to benefit from that growth in 2026.
As mentioned earlier, Dow’s closure of its Freeport propylene oxide plant has created a $70 million stranded cost headwind for Olin. By optimizing our power supply, we’ve already managed to offset approximately $20 million of that stranded cost. Earlier this month, we announced the closure of our Epoxy production plant in Brazil. We’ll be able to more cost-effectively serve our customers there with supply from either Freeport or Stade, both of which are vertically integrated with better cost structures. As a result of this action, we expect to realize a $10 million annual benefit.
Frank Mitsch Fermium Research, LLC
I may have missed this in the past, but I wanted to ask about this $70 million stranded costs for the PO-related closure. Dow announced this back in May of 2023. And so I — obviously, you’ve known about it for a long time and could plan for it, et cetera, that $70 million sounds like a very large number. Can you help explain that to us, to me, in particular?
Kenneth Lane President, CEO & Director
Thanks for your question. listen, yes, we have known about this for a long time, and we’ve been planning it, and we talked about this at our Investor Day, we knew that this was coming — but you don’t take the costs out until you shut the assets. And so those assets are being closed and wound down as we speak.
So as we go through the year, we’re going to have to find ways to be able to offset that. And that’s — that was the basis for us creating Beyond250 is that we’ve got to find ways to be able to take those costs out. The way that we were talking about this, I think previously as well is that asset and the sales from that asset didn’t generate any margin for us. It was sort of a net zero effect for us in terms of the P&L. But that doesn’t mean that there would not be stranded costs with that. We were aware of that we’ve got to get after that. That is a very clear focus for us to be able to do that as we wind those assets down, but that is going to be something that happens over time. It doesn’t happen like flipping a switch.
Matthew DeYoe BofA Securities, Research Division
I feel like the prior kind of commentary for 2026 epoxies, I think, we were expecting something around $80 million in cost savings, of which over half was supposed to come from just the Dow contract lapse Stade.
Clearly, you’re talking about modest profitability. Now, this wouldn’t be the first case, productivity is lost through the cycle, but I’m just trying to clarify if that’s what’s happening here or if we should expect those savings to be more ratable in ’27. I’ll let you expand from there.
Kenneth Lane President, CEO & Director
Listen, so what we had said back at Investor Day, that $80 million, remember that was our cost-out target for 2028. So that — you’re going to realize a very big chunk of that $40 million to $50 million is going to be realized in 2026. So you are going to see Epoxy last year, $50-ish million EBITDA negative.
We’re going to be positive this year. I mean, I do expect that that’s going to be the result in 2026. So you’re going to see a meaningful improvement in our earnings. Most of that are things that we’re doing to help ourselves in cost reduction and efficiency improvements. Just to be clear, we’re not seeing any significant improvement in the Epoxy market. Demand is still subdued. Margins are still weak. That environment has not changed.
So all of this improvement that you’re seeing is a result of what we’ve done. And so it’s not getting lost anywhere. You’re going to see that positive impact coming through in 2026.
Olin Corporation (OLN) Q3 2025 Earnings Call October 28, 2025 9:00 AM EDT
Company Participants
Steve Keenan – Director of Investor Relations Kenneth Lane – President, CEO & Director Todd Slater – Senior VP & CFO
Kenneth Lane President, CEO & Director
Thank you, Steve, and thanks to everyone for joining us today. Let’s start with Slide 3 and our third quarter highlights. During the third quarter, we delivered robust results, reflecting strong performance in our Chlor Alkali products and Vinyls business, partially offset by ongoing weakness in our Epoxy and Winchester commercial ammunition businesses. We remain disciplined in our value-first commercial approach and operated our assets safely, reliably and efficiently.
Team Olin is more committed than ever to executing our value-first commercial strategy, maximizing cash generation and delivering on our capital allocation priorities while preserving our strong leverage to a demand recovery. During the third quarter, we continued to generate positive operating cash flow and with a focused effort by Team Olin achieved a significant milestone by securing our eligibility for Section 45V clean hydrogen production tax credits, which Todd will discuss shortly.
Now let’s turn to Slide 5 for a look at our Epoxy results. Global Epoxy resin demand remains weak, and we continue to face significant headwinds in both Europe and the U.S. regions, facing subsidized imported resin from Asian producers. U.S. demand has been more resilient than Europe. And with the removal of Epoxy resins from Annex II tariff exemptions, we are seeing traction with U.S. price increases. In spite of these market dynamics, Olin’s third quarter formulated solutions volume improved sequentially.
Fourth quarter planned maintenance presents a $14 million sequential headwind to Epoxy earnings. As we execute this turnaround safely and efficiently, the Epoxy team will focus on cash management as they reduce year-end inventories. Olin’s new Stade, Germany supply agreement will provide improved economics for our European production, similar to the benefits from our integrated operations at Freeport.
Starting in January 2026, the new agreement is expected to provide an annual adjusted EBITDA benefit of approximately $40 million. With rationalization of capacity in Europe, we are seeing opportunities to grow our participation and we’ll do so at a value that is attractive.
Todd Slater Senior VP & CFO
Our Epoxy business continued to grow its formulated solutions volume as persistent headwinds from subsidized Asian imports impacted both the United States and European markets. As expected, Epoxy’s third quarter results included higher operating costs from unabsorbed fixed manufacturing expenses incurred from planned inventory reductions.
Kenneth Lane President, CEO & Director
Thanks, Todd. Let’s finish up with Slide 9 and our outlook for the fourth quarter. In our CAPV business, through actions we’re taking, we expect to see stable ECU values in the face of seasonally weaker demand. Our Epoxy business remains challenged, but will begin to see improvement as we enter the new year and benefits accrue from our new Stade supply agreement, some pricing improvements in the U.S. market and volume gains in Europe following capacity rationalizations.
Patrick Cunningham Citigroup Inc., Research Division
Maybe just on Epoxy. Obviously, still continues to be challenged by some price competitive Asian imports. Maybe you’re getting a little protection here that gives you a platform for price. But how should we think about earnings levels into next year? You have some nice savings actions at Stade. You have maybe some incremental volume opportunities with competitors leaving the space in Europe. So I’m just how are you thinking about the framework for next year on Epoxy?
Kenneth Lane President, CEO & Director
Patrick, thank you for your question. I hate to get too far out over my skis here, but I’m probably more optimistic on Epoxy than I have been in the last 1.5 years. But that’s not because the market is improving. It’s really because of the actions that we’ve taken as Olin over the last few years to be able to rightsize our cost base, rightsize our capacities. We do have a very good integrated business that has allowed us to survive when others can’t. And so that’s what happens in the trough. You start to see people that are not as competitive close capacity until demand begins to recover, and we’re positioned very well as that happens.
But in the meantime, with all the cost reductions that we’re going to realize, both in Europe and frankly, in the U.S., along with a little bit of a tailwind around tariffs, I do expect that going into next year, we’re going to see a pretty significant improvement from a very low level for Epoxy. But I think that’s a business where, yes, I’m going to be very eager to see that improvement next year, which should be quite positive versus this year. And as a percentage, will probably be better than any other business we’ve got.
Avery Dennison to Acquire Meridian’s Flooring Business
Avery Dennison to acquire Meridian’s flooring business
MENTOR, Ohio – August 25, 2025 — Avery Dennison Corporation (NYSE:AVY), a leading global materials science and digital identification solutions company, today announced it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire the U.S.-based flooring adhesives business of Meridian Adhesives Group, a global adhesives manufacturer, for the purchase price of $390 million. The acquisition is subject to certain customary closing and post-closing adjustments.
Meridian’s flooring adhesives business is a leader in the development, manufacture and commercialization of specialty adhesives and coatings for the U.S. flooring industry, with projected 2025 revenue of approximately $110 million and attractive operating margins. Headquartered in Dalton, Georgia, it operates four manufacturing facilities in the United States and employs approximately 110 people.
“Avery Dennison remains sharply focused on expanding in high-value categories, both organically and through M&A,” said Deon Stander, Avery Dennison president and CEO. “This acquisition will leverage our materials science capabilities, while deepening our specialty adhesives solutions, with a business that is highly regarded within the floor covering industry for its product quality, strong customer relationships and continuous innovation.”
Upon completion of the transaction, the flooring adhesives business will become part of the Avery Dennison Materials Group business. The Meridian flooring adhesives business includes Taylor Adhesives, Polycom and Frontier Products’ brands.
“This acquisition is an excellent fit with Materials Group,” said Ryan Yost, president, Avery Dennison Materials Group. “It adds a valuable set of application-oriented solutions in high-value categories to our adhesives portfolio. We see strong cost and technology synergies that will build on our materials science capabilities, acrylic adhesive expertise and open new application opportunities for us in the flooring industry.”
Ralph Grogan, commercial president of flooring, Meridian, added: “I am incredibly proud of what our teams at Taylor Adhesives, Polycom and Frontier Products have built. With Avery Dennison’s backing and reach, these brands are well-positioned to continue growing and delivering even greater value to our customers.”
Avery Dennison expects the transaction to close in the fourth quarter. It is not expected to have a material impact on the company’s adjusted earnings per share in 2025. Chemlink Partners, LLC and Goodwin Procter LLP advised Avery Dennison on the transaction. Piper Sandler, Moelis & Company, and Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP advised Meridian on the transaction.
About Avery Dennison Avery Dennison Corporation (NYSE: AVY) is a global materials science and digital identification solutions company. We are Making Possible™ products and solutions that help advance the industries we serve, providing branding and information solutions that optimize labor and supply chain efficiency, reduce waste, advance sustainability, circularity and transparency, and better connect brands and consumers. We design and develop labeling and functional materials, radio-frequency identification (RFID) inlays and tags, software applications that connect the physical and digital, and offerings that enhance branded packaging and carry or display information that improves the customer experience. Serving industries worldwide — including home and personal care, apparel, general retail, e-commerce, logistics, food and grocery, pharmaceuticals and automotive — we employ approximately 35,000 employees in more than 50 countries. Our reported sales in 2024 were $8.8 billion. Learn more at www.averydennison.com.
About Meridian Meridian Adhesives Group is a leading manufacturer of high-performance adhesives, providing cutting-edge solutions across electronics, flooring, infrastructure, packaging, and product assembly markets. With a strong portfolio of innovative brands, Meridian is dedicated to delivering superior adhesive technologies to meet the evolving needs of global customers.
DIC to Build New Epoxy Resin Production Facility at Chiba Plant
ECHEMI2025-08-11
DIC Corporation is committed to providing unique solutions in the field of “chemical electronics,” focusing on semiconductor packaging materials and cutting-edge electronic components, anticipating future growth in demand for these materials.
To achieve this goal, DIC has decided to build a new epoxy resin production facility at its Chiba Plant in Ichihara City, Chiba Prefecture. This investment decision reflects the approval by Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) of this investment plan as a “Plan to Ensure Stable Supply” under the Law on Securing National Security through the Integrated Implementation of Economic Measures, for which DIC expects to receive subsidies of up to 3 billion yen.
Epoxy resin is a highly reactive thermosetting synthetic resin with excellent moldability, heat resistance, electrical insulation, and adhesion properties, and is widely used in various industries.
The existing epoxy resin production facility at the Chiba Plant currently has insufficient capacity to meet the expected growth in demand. Therefore, DIC plans to secure additional epoxy resin production capacity in the medium and long term by constructing new production facilities adjacent to the existing facilities. This facility will also introduce new production processes to achieve world-class quality and higher production efficiency, thereby enhancing its competitiveness.
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