Huntsman Corp. recently reported its financial results for the 2019 third quarter. Revenues dropped to approximately $1.7 billion, compared to nearly $2 billion in the third quarter of 2018, a decrease of 14%. In the Advanced Materials segment, revenues dipped 8% to $256 million. Polyurethanes saw a steeper decline of 12%, to $993 million compared to approximately $1.1 billion in the 2018 third quarter.

“In spite of an increasingly challenging global economic environment, I have never been more pleased about our mix of businesses and the strength of our balance sheet,” said Peter R. Huntsman, chairman, president, and CEO. “We continue our strategy to move and shift our asset portfolio to more downstream, stable and resilient businesses, as well as to manage effectively our working capital and balance sheet. We are on track to close the divestiture of our Chemical Intermediates and Surfactants businesses in early 2020, yielding approximately $1.6 billion of net proceeds upon completion. This, coupled with our ongoing strong free cash flow and investment grade balance sheet will provide us with abundant resource and flexibility in our ongoing balanced approach to capital allocation which includes organic and inorganic expansion, opportunistic share repurchases and a competitive dividend. We are very well positioned for the future.”

Huntsman reports that the 2019 third quarter revenue decrease in its Advanced Materials segment was due to lower sales volumes and lower average selling prices. Sales volumes decreased across most markets, primarily due to economic slowdown and customer destocking, particularly in the European region. Average selling prices decreased primarily due to the impact of a stronger U.S. dollar against major international currencies, partially offset by higher local currency selling prices.

The decrease in revenues in the Polyurethanes segment was reportedly due to lower MDI average selling prices, partially offset by higher MDI sales volumes. MDI average selling prices decreased primarily due to a decline in component MDI selling prices in China and Europe. MDI sales volumes increased primarily due to the startup of the company’s new Chinese MDI facility in the third quarter of 2018.

Additional details are available at www.huntsman.com.