Arkema S/Adr (ARKAY) Q1 2026 Earnings Call

Investor webinar replay

Replay transcript excerpt

Good morning. This is the conference operator. Welcome and thank you for joining the Arkema First Quarter twenty twenty six Results and Outlook Conference Call. As a reminder, all participants are in listen only mode. And after the presentation, there will be an opportunity to ask questions by pressing star and one at any time. At this time, I would like to turn the conference over to Mr. Thierry Lehennaff, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer. Please go ahead, sir. Thank you very much. Good morning, everybody. Welcome to Arkema's Q1 twenty six Results Conference Call. Joining me today are Marie Jose Dansson, CFO and the Investor Relations team. As always, to support this conference call, we have posted a set of slides, which are available on our website. I will comment the highlights of the quarter before letting Marie Jose go through the financials. And at the end of the presentation, we'll be available as usual to answer your questions. In the continuity of 2025, market conditions remained soft into January and February 2026 before improving in March. Regional trends were contrasted with demand continuing to be subdued in Europe and in The U. S, while Asia showed again solid momentum across several of our end markets. In addition, the quarter was once more affected by the depreciation of the U. S. Dollar compared to last year, while this impact is expected to be more limited from the second quarter onwards. End of February saw the outbreak of the conflict in The Middle East, which started to impact global supply chain and quickly led to a sharp rise in certain raw materials as well as in energy and logistic costs beginning in Asia. So in this complex environment, Arkema delivered stable volumes year on year, a solid performance in the context. This was particularl...