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Large petrochemical company producing polyethylene, polypropylene and other plastics feedstocks, plus oil refining.
Large petrochemical company producing polyethylene, polypropylene and other plastics feedstocks, plus oil refining.
Sells large volumes of plastics and chemicals whose prices swing with supply and demand, so earnings come from the gap between product prices and feedstock costs, with the US running on cheaper ethane than Europe's naphtha. It emerged from bankruptcy in 2010 as LyondellBasell and closed its Houston refinery in 2025.
Moat: narrow (scale, cost advantage). Large-scale, feedstock-flexible global petrochemical production supports cost competitiveness in a commodity industry.
Headquarters: Rotterdam, Netherlands · Founded: 2007 · Employees: 18,970
Size LyondellBasell (LYB) is a United States Materials company (Chemicals: Specialty) with a market value of $19.6B, the 500th largest of 3,117 United States companies the cockpit tracks. Shares closed at $60.72 on 6 Nov 2026.
Performance Over six months the shares fell 15.4%, against -15.6% for the median peer and -1.1% for the United States market (cap-weighted) — 11th highest of 21 in its peer set.
Growth Revenue fell 1.8% over the last twelve months (peer median +3.6%); the operating margin is 9.8% (peer median 13.0%).
Valuation It trades at 9.5× forward earnings against a peer median of 17.5× (7th cheapest of 19).
Price implies For today's price to make sense, revenue must grow about -10% a year for seven years (Req g). Recent delivered growth is +2%, so the hurdle is -12 pp: the price already allows for a slowdown.
Capital Return on invested capital runs 5.2 points above its cost of capital (6.1% WACC).
Credit LyondellBasell has 12 bonds outstanding ($8.23B), rated BBB- by the agencies and trading like BBB- at a weighted spread of 135 bp.
Short interest Short interest is 3.6% of the free float (15 Oct 2026).
Next results Next results expected around 29 Jan 2027 (exchange calendar; dates can move).
| TTM | FY2025 | FY2024 | FY2023 | FY2022 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Revenue | $32.0B | $30.2B | $33.4B | $40.9B | $50.4B |
| Revenue growth | — | -10% | -18% | -19% | — |
| Gross profit | $4.83B | $2.73B | $4.49B | $5.17B | $6.57B |
| EBITDA | $4.57B | $2.38B | $4.08B | $5.01B | $6.40B |
| Net income | $1.29B | -$745M | $1.36B | $2.11B | $3.88B |
| Free cash flow | $2.41B | $384M | $1.98B | $3.41B | $4.23B |
| Capital expenditure | $1.29B | $1.88B | $1.84B | $1.53B | $1.89B |
| Total debt | $13.6B | $14.6B | $12.9B | $13.0B | $13.2B |
The default views of Competitor Analysis ▸ Charts, drawn from the same data. Open them in the cockpit to change the axes, pin companies and read every value.
| Company | Market cap | 6M return | Revenue growth | Op. margin | Forward P/E | Req g |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| LyondellBasell LYB | $19.6B | -15% | -2% | 10% | 9.5× | -10.3% |
| Dow DOW | $22.7B | -14% | +4% | 5% | 14.8× | 4.3% |
| ExxonMobil XOM | $677B | +16% | +21% | 14% | 11.8× | -5.9% |
| Westlake WLK | $8.11B | -32% | 0% | 1% | 38.6× | 37.4% |
Peer set: Industry: the same industry and sector in any market, nearest in size. This is the same default set the interactive Competitor Analysis opens with.
| Measure | LYB | Peer median | Rank in peer set |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1-month return | +0.6% | -2.0% | 8th highest of 21 |
| 6-month return | -15.4% | -15.6% | 11th highest of 21 |
| Distance from 52-week high | -27.7% | -34.5% | 10th highest of 21 |
| Revenue growth (TTM) | -1.8% | +3.6% | 7th lowest of 21 |
| Operating margin | 9.8% | 13.0% | 9th lowest of 21 |
| Forward P/E | 9.5× | 17.5× | 7th cheapest of 19 |
| Growth the price implies (Req g, 7 yrs) | -10.3% | 8.1% | 2nd least demanding of 16 |
| Growth delivered (Del g) | +1.7% | +10.7% | 3rd lowest of 16 |
| Hurdle (Req g minus delivered) | -12.0 pp | -2.8 pp | 7th least demanding of 16 |
| ROIC minus cost of capital | +5.2 pp | -0.9 pp | 5th highest of 21 |
| EV / EBITDA | 6.6× | 11.2× | 2nd cheapest of 12 |
| Net debt / EBITDA | 2.3× | 1.9× | 6th most indebted of 14 |
| Bond spread | 135 bp | 101 bp | widest of 7 |
| Company | Market | Market cap | 6M return | Revenue growth | Op. margin | Forward P/E | Req g | Delivered g |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| LyondellBasell LYB | United States | $19.6B | -15% | -2% | 10% | 9.5× | -10.3% | +1.7% |
| China Northern Rare Earth (Group) High-Tech 600111.SS | China | $19.6B | -31% | +29% | 11% | 28.5× | 24.6% | +14.2% |
| Hengli Petrochemical 600346.SS | China | $17.5B | -25% | -8% | 8% | 9.2× | -8.0% | +5.1% |
| Dow DOW | United States | $22.7B | -14% | +4% | 5% | 14.8× | 4.3% | +0.7% |
| Ningxia Baofeng Energy 600989.SS | China | $23.4B | -31% | +35% | 35% | 8.4× | -7.8% | +24.8% |
| Sociedad Quimica y Minera de Chile S.A. Sponsored ADR Pfd Series B SQM | United States | $16.0B | -37% | +59% | 39% | 7.3× | -4.8% | +20.1% |
| Ems-chemie EMSN.SW | Switzerland | $24.3B | +28% | -3% | 30% | 39.4× | 8.6% | +1.6% |
| Nippon Sanso 4091.T | Japan | $15.3B | +1% | +10% | 15% | 16.9× | 7.8% | +10.7% |
| Symrise SY1.DE | Germany | $15.1B | +30% | -1% | 12% | 24.8× | 8.1% | +7.0% |
| Covestro 1COV.DE | Germany | $14.0B | 0% | -9% | -3% | 200.3× | n/a | n/a |
| Zhejiang Juhua 600160.SS | China | $13.1B | -12% | -5% | 20% | 18.2× | n/a | n/a |
| Lgchem 051910.KS | South Korea | $12.6B | -42% | 0% | 0% | n/a | n/a | n/a |
| Resonac 4004.T | Japan | $12.6B | -26% | +1% | 8% | 18.0× | 26.7% | +6.7% |
| Satellite Chemical 002648.SZ | China | $12.4B | -17% | +20% | 23% | 7.2× | -13.2% | +33.8% |
| Formosa Plastics 1301.TW | Taiwan | $12.1B | +22% | -11% | -2% | 21.4× | n/a | n/a |
| Novonesis A/S NSIS-B.CO | Denmark | $32.1B | +22% | +5% | 21% | 30.0× | 13.2% | +17.2% |
| Albemarle ALB | United States | $11.7B | -51% | +18% | 14% | 11.3× | 10.9% | +10.4% |
| Formosa Chemicals & Fibre 1326.TW | Taiwan | $11.1B | +21% | -5% | 1% | 21.0× | 26.2% | +2.5% |
| Swancor Advanced Materials 688585.SS | China | $10.9B | +50% | +3% | -25% | n/a | n/a | n/a |
| Ganfeng Lithium 1772.HK | Hong Kong | $9.76B | -72% | +123% | 18% | 6.4× | 9.0% | +32.0% |
| Tianqi Lithium 002466.SZ | China | $8.97B | -54% | +104% | 57% | 9.0× | -1.2% | +26.2% |
LyondellBasell has 12 bonds outstanding with $8.23B face value. The agencies rate it BBB-; its bonds trade like BBB-. Weighted yield 6.32%, a spread of 135 bp over government bonds.