HELSINKI (Reuters) – Finnish refiner Neste on Wednesday cut the outlook for its renewables business for the third time this year due to falling prices and lower than expected sales volumes, sending the company’s share price down 10%.
Neste slashed the expected sales margin of its renewables unit to between $360-$480 per tonne, down from $480-$580 per tonne seen in July and well below the $600-$800 seen in February.
The company now also expects renewables sales volume this year to be about 3.9 million tonnes instead of the 4.4 million it had predicted since the start of the year, it added.
A part of the volume cut came from the production of sustainable aviation fuel, which is now expected to sell between 350,000-550,000 tonnes this year, down from between 500,000 and 700,000 tonnes seen previously, Neste said.
“Renewable products’ sales prices have been negatively affected by a substantial decrease in diesel price during the third quarter,” Neste said in a statement.
“At the same time, waste and residue feedstock prices have not decreased and renewable product market price premiums have remained weak,” the company added.
(Reporting by Elviira Luoma and Essi Lehto, editing by Terje Solsvik)