Published by Global Banking & Finance Review®
Posted on January 28, 2026
2 min readLast updated: January 28, 2026
Add as preferred source on GoogleWacker Chemie's 2025 earnings fell 42% due to weak demand and high energy costs. The CEO urges competitive energy prices and reduced bureaucracy.
Jan 28 (Reuters) - Urgent action needs to be taken to protect Germany's chemicals industry, Wacker Chemie's CEO said on Wednesday, after the company's 2025 earnings fell due to sluggish global demand, negative currency effects and high energy costs.
The speciality chemicals maker said its preliminary earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) fell 42% to 430 million euros ($515.74 million) from 744 million euros a year earlier.
Preliminary full-year sales fell 4% from a year earlier to 5.49 billion euros, it said.
Analysts polled by Vara Research expected full-year EBITDA of 557.6 million euros and sales of 5.48 billion euros.
In a statement, CEO Christian Hartel said the German and European chemical sector faced "tremendous pressure" in 2025 and he urged officials to ensure more competitive energy prices and reduced bureaucracy.
"For the chemical industry to continue to have a future in Germany, lawmakers must also take urgent action now to create the right underlying conditions," he said. "Above all, we need internationally competitive energy prices and less bureaucracy."
All four of Wacker's divisions reported weaker sales in 2025, driven by reduced capacity utilization. Silicone sales declined 3% from a year earlier, polymers dropped 6%, biosolutions fell 4% and polysilicon slipped 7%.
But the company said the hyperpure polysilicon for semiconductors business performed "very well," even as solar-grade polysilicon volumes declined.
Wacker said it booked around 100 million euros in special charges in the fourth quarter related to its largest restructuring project to date, which aims to cut production and administrative costs by more than 300 million euros annually.
In November, the firm announced its intention to cut around 9% of its workforce, primarily in Germany, by the end of 2027 as part of its cost-cutting measures. It plans to eliminate more than 1,500 positions globally with the workforce reduction scheme starting from the first quarter of 2026, continuing through the end of 2027.
($1 = 0.8338 euros)
(Reporting by Antonis Pothitos; Editing by Himani Sarkar and Thomas Derpinghaus)
EBITDA stands for Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation, and Amortization. It is a financial metric used to evaluate a company's operating performance.
Restructuring refers to the process of reorganizing a company's structure, operations, or finances to improve efficiency and adapt to market changes.
Special charges are one-time expenses that a company incurs, often related to restructuring or significant operational changes, which can impact earnings.
Workforce reduction refers to the process of decreasing the number of employees in a company, often to cut costs or improve efficiency.
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