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The chemical industry is navigating its longest down cycle in two decades, with oversupply, weak demand, and tariff uncertainty shaping a challenging landscape for business leaders. Host Victoria Meyer unpacks the third quarter 2025 earnings reports, highlighting five key themes impacting the industry: soft demand, price and margin pressures, disciplined cost control, shifts in supply chain strategy, and the increasing impact of tariffs and trade policy.
Victoria shares strategies for business leaders looking to finish 2025 strong and prepare for 2026, including focusing on core value segments, strengthening regional supply chains, protecting margins, improving demand forecasting, and prioritizing cash and investment discipline. This episode delivers actionable insights for chemical industry professionals facing tough decisions and searching for clarity in uncertain times.
Victoria explores the following topics:
- Industry faces weak demand, uncertainty, and stalled recovery.
- Oversupply crisis: Prices and margins squeezed, except in specialty/innovation segments.
- Cost discipline intensifies: Cutting spending, optimizing portfolios, reducing dividends.
- Firms pivot to regional markets and supply chains to manage tariffs and simplify operations.
- Actionable strategies for leaders to drive clarity, control, and growth heading into 2026.
Killer Quote:"Cash is king, right? And that's what we're seeing. And getting smarter with how you're managing cash... This is around being crystal clear who your high value customers and your lesser value customers are and how you serve them. It is looking at your portfolio, your customer portfolio and optimizing it. Optimization gives you strength for your own business." - Victoria Meyer
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