Solvay Sa Act (SVYSF) Q2 2026 Earnings Call

Investor webinar replay

Replay transcript excerpt

Good afternoon everyone and welcome to Solvay's second quarter and first half 2026 earnings conference call. I'm Geoffroy Loutremont, head of investor relations and I'm joined today by our CEO Philippe Kehren and our CFO Alexandre Blum. This call is being recorded and will be accessible for replay on the investor relations section of Solvay's website later today. I would like to remind you that the presentation includes forward-looking statements that are subject to risks and uncertainties. The slides presented in today's call are also available on our website. Let's get started. Philippe, over to you. Thank you, Geoffroy, and hello everyone. Let me start with safety, which is at the heart of everything we do. A transformation delivers tangible results with the reportable injury rate further improving in the second quarter, as you can see here. This positive development reflects the commitment of our teams. We continue to strengthen our safety culture through targeted initiatives. For example, we now have a focus on injuries, slips, trips and falls, and contractors' safety management. So let's move to our performance. Our performance in the second quarter reflects different realities in an operating environment that is constantly evolving. On the one hand, bicarbonate and electronic grade peroxides are at record sales levels. On the other hand, soda ash remains under competitive pressure in the export markets, indirectly weighing on the US market. On the conflict in the Middle East, we estimate that it had a negative impact of around 20 million euros on the EBITDA in Q2. The main element is the shutdown of the peroxides plant in Saudi Arabia. Outside of this, the impact is slightly negative with the improvement of the dynamics at Coatis not fully covering higher ener...