LyondellBasell Industries (LYB) FY2025 results: revenue $30.2 billion, down 9.7% on the year

LyondellBasell is a global independent chemical company, incorporated under Dutch law on 15 October 2009. Its plants convert large volumes of liquid and gaseous hydrocarbon feedstocks into plastic resins and other chemicals, which tend to be basic building blocks for other chemicals and plastics, and its customers use them to make food packaging, home furnishings, automotive components, paints and coatings. It also develops and licenses chemical and polyolefin process technologies and makes and sells polyolefin catalysts. Results are driven by supply and demand for the products, the cost and availability of feedstocks and commodities, global and regional capacity, operational efficiency and cost control, and the company buys large quantities of natural gas, electricity and steam for energy and natural gas liquids and crude oil derivatives as feedstock. There are five operating segments, four of them product businesses plus Technology.

Olefins and polyolefins

Two segments carry this work, one for the Americas and one for Europe, Asia and international markets, and both produce and market olefins and co-products, polyethylene and polypropylene. The filing describes ethylene as the most significant petrochemical by worldwide production volume and the key building block for polyethylene and many other chemicals, made by steam cracking hydrocarbons such as ethane, propane, butane and naphtha, which also yields co-products including aromatics, propylene and butadiene. Olefins and co-products sales were approximately 14% of consolidated revenues in 2025, against 15% in each of 2024 and 2023. The company states that it is one of the leading producers of olefins and polyethylene worldwide and the world's second largest producer of polypropylene. Polyethylene, made in high density, low density and linear low-density grades, was approximately 24% of consolidated revenues in 2025, and polypropylene homopolymers and copolymers approximately 19%. Most of the ethylene produced is consumed internally to make polyethylene and other derivatives, with the balance sold to third parties mainly on long-term contracts, and propylene feeds the company's own polypropylene and propylene oxide production. The circular and low carbon solutions business, which sources recycled and renewable feedstocks, sits inside these two segments.

Intermediates and Derivatives

The segment makes propylene oxide and its derivatives, oxyfuels and related products, and intermediate chemicals such as styrene monomer and acetyls. Propylene oxide is produced through two mutually exclusive technologies on dedicated assets, one yielding tertiary butyl alcohol as co-product and the other styrene monomer, and it is a precursor of polyols, propylene glycol, glycol ethers and butanediol used in insulation, automotive and furniture cushioning, coatings, surfactants and synthetic resins. The oxyfuels, methyl tertiary butyl ether and ethyl tertiary butyl ether, are made by converting the tertiary butyl alcohol co-product into isobutylene and reacting it with methanol or ethanol, and they serve as high-octane gasoline components that help fuel burn cleaner; other derivatives, called C4 chemicals, go into synthetic rubber and fuel and lubricant additives. Oxyfuels and related products were approximately 16% of consolidated revenues in 2025. Styrene monomer goes into packaging, cups and containers, insulation and durables, and the acetyls range covers methanol, glacial acetic acid and vinyl acetate monomer.

Advanced Polymer Solutions

The segment produces compounding and solutions: polypropylene compounds made from blends of polyolefins and additives, largely for automotive use; engineered plastics and engineered composites for specialised high-performance applications; masterbatches that add properties to commodity plastics used in packaging, agriculture and durable goods; and powdered and pelletised colour concentrates. Products are sold through regional sales organisations to established customers and distributors and move mostly by truck or bulk rail, and the segment was approximately 11% of consolidated revenues in each of 2025, 2024 and 2023. Manufacturing joint ventures operate in Saudi Arabia, Indonesia and Thailand, with majority ownership and operational control only in Indonesia.

Technology and people

The Technology segment develops and licenses chemical and polyolefin process technologies and makes and sells polyolefin catalysts, both to outside customers and for the company's own plants, with approximately 20% of catalyst sales going internally over the past three years. Process licences provide a standard core technology with customised modules for a licensee's grade slate and plant capacity, and can come with project assistance, training, start-up help, ongoing technical support and long-term catalyst supply. At 31 December 2025 the company had approximately 18,970 employees, approximately 7% fewer than a year earlier after fixed cost reductions under its cash improvement plan and the Houston Refinery shutdown.

From LyondellBasell's annual report on Form 10-K for the year ended 31 December 2025. The filing

Written from the 10-K filed 20 February 2026: read the full 10-K.