Specialty Chemicals & Industrial Gases

Phichem announced on September 30 that its board of directors had received a notification letter from the controlling shareholder Phichem Holdings and its concert party Zhang Yanxia. As of the disclosure date, the two had cumulatively reduced their holdings in the company by 5,680,075 shares and decided to terminate this share reduction plan ahead of schedule. Shares not yet sold under the plan will no longer be reduced within the remaining period. Based on the average reduction price disclosed in the announcement, the shareholders cashed out approximately 200 million yuan in total from this reduction. The company had pre-disclosed the reduction plan on June 10, 2026. Phichem Holdings and Zhang Yanxia originally planned to reduce their combined holdings by no more than 5,669,464 shares within three months starting 15 trading days after the pre-disclosure announcement, through block trades or centralized bidding, representing no more than 1.00 percent of total share capital. Because the registration of shares vested under the first归属 period of the 2025 restricted stock incentive plan was completed in June 2026, total share capital increased from 566,946,450 shares to 570,033,250 shares, and the planned reduction amount was correspondingly adjusted to no more than 5,700,332 shares, with the proportion of total share capital unchanged. On the same day, the board also received a notification letter from Phichem Holdings and its concert parties Zhang Justin Jicheng, Zhang Alan Jian, Zhang Yanxia, and Xia Shifeng stating that their equity change had reached 1 percent. From May 20, 2025 to September 29, 2026, the combined shareholding ratio of the above shareholders decreased from 22.00 percent to 20.79 percent. Phichem is mainly engaged in the research, development, production, and sales of electronic chemical materials. Its 2026 semi-annual report showed that during the reporting period it achieved total operating revenue of 1.722 billion yuan, up 17.79 percent year on year; net profit attributable to the parent company was 267 million yuan, up 23.20 percent year on year; non-GAAP net profit was 260 million yuan, up 47.19 percent year on year; and net cash flow from operating activities was 478 million yuan, up 101.81 percent year on year.

Citi downgraded Dow and LyondellBasell to Neutral from Buy on Wednesday, citing weak demand that is limiting the benefit chemical producers might otherwise receive from higher oil and global feedstock costs. Lead analyst Patrick Cunningham said Citi no longer has conviction that polyethylene prices offer significant upside, even with crude oil at $100 a barrel, and the firm cut earnings estimates and price targets across much of its North American commodity chemicals coverage. Citi lowered its Dow price target to $30 from $35 and its LyondellBasell target to $63 from $72, and reduced its 2027 EPS estimate for Dow to $1.21 from $1.83 and for LyondellBasell to $5.79 from $7.20. The firm expects integrated polyethylene margins to decline by about 11 cents per pound in 2027, with each 1-cent change representing roughly $120 million in annualized EBITDA for Dow's North American operations and $133 million for LyondellBasell. Citi also cut its Westlake price target to $67 from $85 while maintaining a Neutral rating, trimmed its Celanese target to $58 from $60 and its Eastman Chemical target to $76 from $81 while keeping Buy ratings on both, and maintained Neutral/High Risk ratings on Huntsman and Olin with price targets cut to $9 from $11 and $17 from $19, respectively.

The Japan Fair Trade Commission on the 25th released the results of an emergency survey on how cost increases are being passed on in prices, prompted by soaring prices for oil-related products and other goods amid turmoil in the Middle East. Among suppliers such as plastics manufacturers that responded, roughly 40 percent have not asked their clients to accept price pass-throughs, citing the balance of bargaining power with their business partners and commercial practices. More than 60 percent of businesses responding from the supplier side said they had been affected by the Middle East situation, and about 80 percent of those said their profits had fallen due to higher prices for energy and consumables. In addition, 59 client companies said they had declined to negotiate with their suppliers and left transaction prices unchanged. The commission sent warning documents to these firms, saying such conduct may constitute an abuse of superior bargaining position prohibited under the Antimonopoly Act, and urged them to make voluntary improvements.

U.S. manufacturers are being squeezed simultaneously by tariffs that have raised raw-material costs, record fuel prices driven by the war with Iran, and the Federal Reserve's first interest rate increase in three years, according to CNBC. Allen Eden, owner of the Original Saw Co., a 25-person industrial power saw maker in Britt, Iowa, told CNBC that a single bracket his motors depend on rose from $42 to $87 over the summer, an increase of more than 100 percent, and that price increases for his saws look inevitable. JPMorgan Chase global strategy head Dubravko Lakos-Bujas wrote in a September 14 note that because smaller companies tend to carry short-duration debt, Fed rate moves translate into higher borrowing costs with little delay. Lucerne International, a Detroit-area auto parts manufacturer, suspended its U.S. production and scrapped a planned $50 million aluminum forging facility in Michigan, with CEO Mary Buchzeiger citing higher raw-material and finished-parts costs tied to what she called Trump tariffs 2.0, while Spanish auto parts maker Grupo Antolin sought Chapter 15 bankruptcy protection in the U.S. in July. Diesel's national average climbed to an unprecedented $6.27 a gallon as the war with Iran restricted tanker traffic through the Strait of Hormuz and Ukrainian drone strikes on Russian refining infrastructure prompted Moscow to ban diesel exports, together removing roughly 20 percent of the diesel that normally moves by sea, according to analysts at ING.

Dow Inc. is reportedly considering selling its 35% stake in Sadara Chemical, its $20 billion chemicals joint venture with Saudi Aramco, as the company continues to reshape its portfolio amid a prolonged downturn in the global chemicals industry. No final decision has been made, and Aramco or another strategic or financial investor could potentially acquire Dow's stake. As of June 30, Dow had a negative investment balance of $793 million in Sadara and had suspended recognition of its share of the venture's equity losses in the first quarter, and the company has also been exposed to Sadara's financing obligations. Sadara remains a major industrial asset, operating a complex in Jubail with more than 3 million metric tons of annual chemicals and plastics capacity, though its operations were disrupted earlier this year by the Middle East conflict. In March, CEO Jim Fitterling said Dow's goal was to avoid putting additional cash into Sadara during 2026, describing the venture as having low operating cash costs but more challenging fixed costs and financing obligations. The $20 billion figure represents the original scale of the joint venture, not the current market value of Dow's 35% stake, so an exit could deliver less financial relief than the headline number suggests while forfeiting upside if chemical margins eventually recover.