The usual development: when things are going well for the oil and gas business of Italian energy and chemicals group Eni, the petrochemicals subsidiary Versalis (Milan, Italy; www.versalis.eni.com) languishes – and vice versa.

In the first quarter of 2023, the difficult situation of late 2022 continued. The small Eni sub-division “Chemicals” – a.k.a. Versalis – suffered from low plant utilisation and weak sales. Furthermore, there was strong competition from the Middle East and Asia in the area of polymers.

The complete takeover of biopolymer specialist Novamont (Novara, Italy; www.novamont.com), which has been concluded by the two companies and is only awaiting the green light from antitrust authorities, could get things moving again.

Versalis puts average plant utilisation in the first quarter of 2023 at just 52%, down from 70% in the same period last year. However, utilisation improved slightly compared to late 2022.

The sales volume of polymers and elastomers also showed a downward trend, dropping by one-third to 760,000 t in the first three months of 2023. The operating result consequently remained clearly in the red, with a minus of EUR 109 mn.

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The last fiscal year had already not been particularly rosy. Versalis’ only positive operating result was in the second quarter of 2022. High energy costs and the resulting loss of competitiveness in polymer prices resulted in sales of just 3.75 mn t – down 16% compared to the preceding year.