Indorama Ventures Public Company Limited (SET: IVL), a global sustainable chemical producer, posted a marked improvement in quarterly performance as the chemical industry struggles to recover from a prolonged downturn and the company’s management executes their 3‑year IVL 2.0 strategy to enhance competitiveness and drive efficiencies.
Indorama Ventures reported Adjusted EBITDA of $427 million in 3Q24, a gain of 32% YoY, supported by steady volumes, improving industry spreads, and the company’s unstinting focus on optimizing assets and reducing fixed costs. The quarter marks Indorama Ventures’ first YOY improvement for the year, with all three business segments recording earnings growth, following a prolonged industry downcycle marked by customer destocking and suppressed margins. Volumes remained steady for the Combined PET and Fibers segments, while Indovinya posted a robust performance amid a peak season in the Crop Solutions market.
Looking ahead, the global economic outlook remains uncertain amid continued inflation, geopolitical tension, and supply chain disruptions. However, throughout the downcycle, Indorama Ventures’ experienced management team has worked hard to optimize and deleverage the business under their IVL 2.0 evolved strategy to emerge stronger and drive enhanced earnings quality in a new era of sustainable profit growth. In 3Q24, this unrelenting focus delivered fixed-cost savings of $19 million, which will sequentially increase into next year as the benefits are fully realized. Operating rates for the group increased to 82% in the quarter—from 69% previously—as the company completed its planned optimization program for CPET and Indovinya, with Fibers under implementation.
The company’s digital transformation program is accelerating according to schedule following the implementation of the SAP S/4HANA ERP platform as a digital core. North America is already benefiting from an AI-based procurement solution, while the Connected Worker Platform is driving manufacturing excellence. The first sales and supply chain solutions are expected to go-live early next year.
Mr Aloke Lohia, Group CEO of Indorama Ventures, said, “The improved result proves how our diverse global business portfolio is advantaged through market cycles. We see signs of margin recovery in our industry, evidenced by good performances across all three of our business segments, and we remain cautiously optimistic that this will continue, albeit gradually due to excessive capacity. We are starting to benefit from the pivotal changes we made to our organization this year, including equipping our empowered leadership teams with new digital tools to help them drive the significant initiatives under our transformational IVL 2.0 strategy.”
Segment Performances
This year, Indorama Ventures has transformed its operations and structures, including empowering a next generation of leaders in each segment who can respond with agility to market changes. The organization restructuring of CPET, Fibers and Indovinya segments under IVL 2.0 has been completed, while actions for the Packaging (Indovida) and Recycling businesses are underway, leaving a leaner corporate executive team to focus on strategy.
CPET (with Intermediate Chemicals) posted Adjusted EBITDA of $286 million in 3Q24, a gain of 27% YoY, supported by steady demand for PET and slightly improved benchmark spreads. Operating rates for the segment increased to 84% from 69% in the previous quarter as management successfully executed their asset optimization program.
Indovinya recorded a strong Adjusted EBITDA of $103 million, a remarkable 93% increase YoY as a peak crops season benefitted its Crops Solutions business, and the Coatings and Construction sectors continued to recover.
Fibers reported Adjusted EBITDA of $48 million, a gain of 44% YoY, driven by improved industry spreads in Lifestyle and higher volumes in Mobility and Hygiene. Management is focused on reducing fixed costs and improving profitability across the entire portfolio and taking firm action to restore market share in key verticals.
