Eastman Chemical sees growing adjusted 2023 EPS by 5%-15%

Commenting on the outlook for full-year 2023, Mark Costa, Board Chair and CEO, said: "We enter 2023 during a challenging period for the global economy characterized by significant inventory destocking, soft end-market demand, and uncertainty about the full year. As we developed our outlook, we included volume/mix expectations that reflect a manufacturing recession scenario that began in the fourth quarter. We expect aggressive inventory destocking to predominantly conclude in the first quarter with modest volume recovery in the back half of the year. In this context, we are taking actions to reduce manufacturing, supply chain and non-manufacturing costs by a total of more than $200 million in 2023, net of inflation. We intend to maintain our demonstrated price discipline in our specialty product lines in order to recover spreads. Our raw material, energy and distribution costs increased by approximately $1.3 billion in 2022 and we expect these costs to moderate in 2023. We also expect significant improvement in our Fibers earnings to more sustainable levels. And our innovation wins will create growth above end markets through the year. Pension and other post-employment benefits costs are expected to increase by approximately $110 million and the annualized impact of a strong U.S. dollar is also expected to be a headwind. Based on this economic scenario and the actions that we are taking, we expect to grow adjusted 2023 EPS by between 5 and 15 percent, excluding the approximately $0.75 pension headwind. We are also taking a range of actions to improve our operating cash flow to be approximately $1.4 billion."