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Insights into Chems Quick Takes: End-Markets, Margins, Recovery?, including:

• End-Market Divergence Creates Mixed Signals: Discover how automotive presents the sole bright spot while construction stalls and packaging volumes grow only through price concessions, creating a challenging landscape where strength in one sector cannot offset broader deterioration.
• Asian Oversupply Reshapes Global Dynamics: Learn how Middle Eastern capacity additions and China’s weak domestic demand are flooding export markets, forcing European and North American producers to idle crackers indefinitely despite historical feedstock advantages.
• Integration Amplifies Losses in Oversupplied Markets: Understand why integrated producers like Dow and LyondellBasell achieve production records yet report margin compression as competitors maintain high utilization rates, making coordinated capacity reductions nearly impossible and delaying any Chemical Industry Margins Recovery.
• European Operations Face Structural Disadvantages: See how energy costs well above North American levels prevent profitability recovery in Europe, with capacity closures described as “cash accretive” rather than positioning for growth—suggesting these are defensive moves to stop losses rather than strategic repositioning.
• Recovery Timeline Extends Into Uncertainty: Gauge how management teams have repeatedly deferred recovery expectations from second-half 2025 to first-half 2026 to mid-year and beyond, with limited visibility and customers shifting to weeks-ahead ordering patterns instead of months-ahead commitments.