By Alberto Chiumento
(Reuters) -Swiss nylon maker EMS Chemie said on Friday it had taken steps to mitigate any impact of “punitive” U.S. tariffs on imports from Europe, as it posted higher net operating income.
EMS Chemie, whose major markets are Germany and China, already has two sites in the United States, where it generated around 20% of its net sales in 2023.
“The consequences of the economic policy measures announced by U.S. President Trump are unpredictable and will have a destabilizing effect, particularly on global supply chains”, EMS Chemie said in its results statement.
“We will remain unaffected,” EMS Chemie said, adding it had set up trade routes for raw materials and sales products ahead of any potential international trade barriers.
Europe’s chemical industry, which has long suffered from weak demand and high production costs, faces uncertainty as European leaders seek to dissuade Trump from imposing tariffs.
“Production in the U.S. has now been increased, probably through production movement to the U.S. sites,” Vontobel analyst Sibylle Bischofberger said of EMS Chemie’s statement.
As a result, it produces nearly all of its products on U.S. sites, which would avoid the announced tariffs, she added.
EMS Chemie generates about half of its sales in the automotive market, which has recently struggled due to sluggish demand, rising costs and intensifying electric vehicle (EV)competition, particularly from Chinese manufacturers.
It supplies Chinese EV giant BYD, as it makes the lightweight polymer car parts used in electric vehicles, which typically weigh more due to heavy batteries.
“It will impact them negatively with lower sales, they cannot escape weak markets,” Bischofberger said.
EMS Chemie, which was not immediately available for comment, forecast 2025 net sales below 2024’s level, impacted by currency effects, and earnings before interest and tax (EBIT) to be slightly above 2024’s level.
It said EBIT for 2024 was 539 million Swiss francs, while net sales fell 5.4% to 2.07 billion francs due to a strengthening Swiss currency, despite higher relative volumes.
Shares in EMS Chemie, which proposed a dividend of 17.25 Swiss francs, were 0.9% higher at 641.5 francs at 1010 GMT.
($1 = 0.9063 Swiss francs)
(Reporting by Alberto Chiumento in Gdansk. Editing by Milla Nissi, Mark Potter and Alexander Smith)
