Eastman execs talk earning insights, first quarter outlook

KINGSPORT — Eastman Chemical Co. held its fourth quarter and full-year 2025 sales and earnings results conference call Friday morning. Executives shared insights on the company's current standings on the call, including what the first quarter of this year is shaping up to look like. Mark Costa, Eastman board chair and CEO, said he expects the company to continue taking cost reduction measures in 2026. He said to reach $225 million to $250 million in cost reduction measures over two years would be "pretty significant" for a company of Eastman's size. "There are a bunch of actions in addition to stabilizing that business directly that we're taking," Costa said on the call. "So the cost reduction actions across the company, that significant cost reduction goal that we have, this in the $125 million to $150 million range to build on $100 million last year." Willie McLain, Eastman executive vice president and chief financial officer, said Friday it's "too early" to predict the impact of winter storms on the company's first quarter performance — but the main impact has been on the natural gas market. "We still have freezing temperatures here in Tennessee, as well as at our site in Longview, Texas," he said. "There's more snow that's getting ready to come. We've seen limited impact on our facilities so far." Methanolysis facility Kingsport's methanolysis facility produced 2.5 times more recycled content this past year than 2024, the company shared in its latest results — generating approximately $60 million in incremental earnings. Eastman started production and generating revenue from the facility in March 2024 — nearly two years ago. Costa said Eastman's Pepsi contract is bringing in "significant revenue" for the Kingsport methanolysis facility, but other contracts are in place. He said Eastman has 100 customers committed and buying Tritan Renew and other specialty products. "We also have several other strategic leading brands ramping up volumes with us on rPET as well," he said on the call. "So that is a big part of the 4% to 5% revenue increase. To what degree the specialties play a role in the final outcome for the year, goes back to the macroeconomic question we talked about. If the world stays stable, we expect some growth in the specialties, especially in consumer durables." He said the second methanolysis facility in Longview, Texas, is still on hold after the U.S. Department of Energy called off a $375 million grant for the project last year. "We're not spending any money on engineering at this stage until we've lined out and developed a compelling project to be a lot more capital efficient in how we're approaching it to restart the project and go forward," Costa said. "So right now we don't have any engineering expense or a headwind from a capital expense point of view." To view more information about Eastman's financial results, visit https://investors.eastman.com/overview/default.aspx.