Evonik expects Q2 core profit in line with Q1, confirms 2024 outlook

(Reuters) - German chemicals group Evonik Industries said on Wednesday it expects its core profit for the second quarter to be "roughly on par" with that of the first quarter.

The company said its first-quarter adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) came in at 522 million euros ($560.6 million), in line with preliminary figures published last month.

Evonik also reiterated its full-year 2024 outlook.

"Many of our customers are buying again," Chief Executive Christian Kullmann said in a statement, but added that there was no broad-based upturn yet as some industries and markets remained restrained.

Evonik's chemicals are used in products from cars to animal feed, as well as in Pfizer and BioNTech's COVID-19 vaccine.

It said that sales volumes were up by 4% in the quarter, while prices fell by 5%, in part due to the passing-on of lower raw material prices.

Chemical companies have been under pressure for more than a year, forced to reduce inventories on lower demand from industrial clients as energy prices soared.

Evonik's finance chief said its cost cuts were increasingly taking effect. In March, it announced up to 2,000 job cuts worldwide by 2026 to reduce costs by 400 million euros annually.

The company said details of its reorganisation programme would be finalised by the third quarter.

(Reporting by Anastasiia Kozlova and Amir Orusov; Editing by Gerry Doyle and Savio D'Souza)