(Reuters) -DuPont on Wednesday reduced its full-year revenue forecast as the chemical and materials maker struggles with lower demand across its businesses and predicted “restructuring actions”.
Fourth-quarter margins could also take a hit as the company aligns inventory with demand, DuPont said, joining chemical makers such as Dow and Eastman Chemical in flagging pressure in the second half from weakness in key markets like China and Europe.
DuPont highlighted volume headwinds from its network of distributor destocking following excess inventory built up during the COVID-19 pandemic, and said it expects the destocking effects to cease by the second quarter of 2024.
“We’re not doing it (restructuring) in response to what’s going on … we’ll get going on it by the middle of December,” CEO Edward Breen said on a conference call.
DuPont trimmed its full-year revenue forecast to $12.17 billion from an earlier range of $12.45 billion to $12.55 billion.
Third-quarter revenue came in at $3.058 billion, missing estimates of $3.153 billion, according to LSEG data.
On an adjusted basis, DuPont earned 92 cents per share for the quarter ended Sept. 30, compared with estimates of 84 cents.
CFO Lori Koch in the conference call highlighted that DuPont’s business with Taiwan Semiconductor Materials saw “nice growth” in the reported quarter as the semiconductor company continued to expand its advanced nodes.
DuPont said it expects higher sales in its semiconductor technologies segment, which is involved in chip manufacturing processes, packaging and assembly, and device fabrication.
The company forecast annual earnings per share of $3.45, compared with prior expectations of between $3.40 and $3.50, and expects to buy back more shares next year.
(Reporting by Seher Dareen in Bengaluru; Editing by Sriraj Kalluvila and Devika Syamnath)
