Goldman Sachs flags downturn risk for Europe chemicals sector
BUZZ-Goldman Sachs flags downturn risk for Europe chemicals sector ** Goldman Sachs sees European chemicals facing another downturn after initially remaining pro-cyclical in the early months of the Middle East conflict
** It cites faster-than-expected demand destruction, as well as Chinese export pressure weighting on the anticipated market share gains
** Europe's chemicals index .SX4P is up about 11% since its December 2025 trough, outperforming the STOXX 600 .SXXP by roughly 3 percentage points, but earnings expectations are increasingly driven by pricing rather than volumes, GS says
** "With a new inflation cycle underway, preference is shifting toward companies with defensive pricing power and secular growth exposure," it adds
** Shares of Arkema AKE.PA and DSM-Firmenich DSFIR.AS are down 2.5%, while Syensqo SYENS.BR drops 3.5%
COMPANY | NEW RATING | OLD RATING | NEW PT | OLD PT |
DSM-Firmenich | Sell | Neutral | EUR 65 | EUR 75 |
Syensqo | Sell | Buy | EUR 59 | EUR 70 |
Evonik | Neutral | Buy | ||
Clariant | Neutral | Sell | CHF 8.50 | CHF 7.50 |
Givaudan | Buy | Sell | CHF 3,500 | CHF 2,900 |
Symrise | Neutral | Buy | ||
Arkema | Neutral | Buy |
(Reporting by Anastasiia Kozlova and Ferdinand Eibach)
((Anastasiia.Kozlova@thomsonreuters.com))