Celanese Corporation (CE) Earnings: Q3 2026 Results

The quarter ended September 30, 2026 and Celanese published the results on November 2, 2026. Revenue and diluted EPS are shown against Q3 2025, the same quarter a year earlier, which takes seasonal swings out of the comparison. Celanese reports EPS two ways: GAAP, under the accounting rules every US filer follows, and adjusted, which leaves out items the company considers outside its operating results. The release reconciles the two, and when they diverge, the reconciliation says why.

• GAAP diluted EPS here is from continuing operations ($0.68), the figure Celanese leads with. Including discontinued operations it was $0.67.
• Celanese sold its Micromax business, part of Engineered Materials, on February 2, 2026. Celanese says Micromax accounted for 6 percentage points of the segment's year-over-year sales decline.
• The Q3 2025 loss of $12.39 per share came from a non-cash goodwill impairment of $1.1 billion in Engineered Materials, which was not tax deductible.

Source: Celanese Q3 2026 results, November 2, 2026. Also in the Form 10-Q for the quarter ended September 30, 2026. Figures as reported; checked against the release on November 10, 2026.

How Celanese splits revenue in its own release, under its own labels, for Q3 2026 against Q3 2025. Indented lines are parts of the line above them.

• Celanese's Engineered Materials revenue was $1.4 billion in Q3 2026, down 1% from $1.4 billion in Q3 2025, 54% of total revenue.
• Celanese's Acetyl Chain revenue was $1.2 billion in Q3 2026, up 14% from $1.1 billion in Q3 2025, 47% of total revenue.

Segment lines are the figures writers cite most often, because they show where the growth in a quarter came from. Companies redraw their segments from time to time and restate the prior year to match, so a year-ago figure here can differ from the one printed a year ago. When that has happened, the note above says so.

From the earnings release

In its Q3 2026 release (Scott Richardson, president and chief executive officer), Celanese said:

“Looking to the fourth quarter, we expect year-end seasonal moderation across both businesses.”

“we anticipate full-year 2026 adjusted earnings per share of approximately $6.00 to $6.25. In addition, based on our strong execution year to date, we have increased our free cash flow outlook to a range of $750 to $800 million.”

“We also expect to exit the year with net debt-to-operating EBITDA of approximately 4.7x”

Source: Celanese Q3 2026 release, Nov 2, 2026.

This is the company's own guidance as of Nov 2, 2026, quoted as given. Walnut does not make forecasts of its own. Analyst estimates for the coming quarters are on the CE forecast page.

Revenue and diluted EPS for the last 5 quarters. Each date links to that quarter's release.

Net sales and GAAP diluted EPS from continuing operations, each as first reported in that quarter's release.

We do not hold a confirmed date for Celanese's next report. Companies post the date on their investor relations site a few weeks ahead, usually with the time of the conference call.

Each quarter keeps its own page with the figures as reported, so a link to one stays pointed at the same numbers after the next report.

• Q3 2026 (this page), reported Nov 2, 2026

Celanese reported net sales of $2,556 million in Q3 2026, up 6 percent from $2,419 million, and down 7 percent from $2,752 million in Q2. It has two segments: Engineered Materials ($1,368 million), specialty polymers sold into markets such as automotive, medical, electronics and industrial, and the Acetyl Chain ($1,209 million), an integrated chain of acetic acid, vinyl acetate monomer, acetate esters, emulsion polymers, EVA polymers, redispersible powders and acetate tow. Intersegment eliminations took off $21 million. (Celanese Q3 2026 release, Nov 2, 2026; Celanese Form 10-K, 2025, Feb 24, 2026)

Price drove Celanese's year-over-year growth. For the whole company volume fell 4 percent and price added 10 percent. In the Acetyl Chain, net sales rose 14 percent entirely on price, as modest demand softness was more than offset by pricing favorability and incremental spot opportunities across acetic acid, derivatives and the vinyls chain. (Celanese Non-U.S. GAAP Financial Measures and Supplemental Information, Q3 2026, Nov 2, 2026; Celanese Q3 2026 release, Nov 2, 2026)

Engineered Materials net sales fell 1 percent, with volume down 6 percent and price up 5 percent. The divested Micromax business, sold to Element Solutions Inc on February 2, 2026 for $493 million, accounted for the whole 6 percent volume decline. Celanese pointed to growth in medical and electronics applications, while sequential sales fell 5 percent on lower automotive demand. (Celanese Non-U.S. GAAP Financial Measures and Supplemental Information, Q3 2026, Nov 2, 2026; Celanese Q3 2026 release, Nov 2, 2026; Celanese Form 10-Q, Q3 2026, Nov 3, 2026)

Celanese's GAAP diluted EPS from continuing operations was $0.68 in Q3 2026, against a loss of $12.39 a year earlier, when a $1.1 billion goodwill impairment hit Engineered Materials. Adjusted EPS was $1.65, against $1.34. The gap between the two this quarter was $109 million of Certain Items, mostly exit and shutdown costs ($87 million), plus mergers, acquisitions and dispositions ($12 million) and legal settlements ($10 million). (Celanese Q3 2026 release, Nov 2, 2026; Celanese Non-U.S. GAAP Financial Measures and Supplemental Information, Q3 2026, Nov 2, 2026)

Celanese taxes adjusted earnings at an adjusted rate of 8 percent, against a GAAP effective tax rate of 15 percent for the quarter. Diluted shares for adjusted EPS were 110.2 million, against 109.6 million a year earlier. (Celanese Q3 2026 release, Nov 2, 2026; Celanese Non-U.S. GAAP Financial Measures and Supplemental Information, Q3 2026, Nov 2, 2026)

Celanese's net debt was $10,183 million at September 30, 2026, down from $11,414 million a year earlier. In the quarter it generated operating cash flow of $538 million and free cash flow of $461 million, and net cash used in financing activities was $480 million. (Celanese Non-U.S. GAAP Financial Measures and Supplemental Information, Q3 2026, Nov 2, 2026; Celanese Q3 2026 release, Nov 2, 2026)

Diluted EPS divides net income by the weighted average number of shares outstanding in the quarter, plus the shares that options and other equity awards could add. Buybacks shrink that count and lift EPS for the same profit; share issuance and stock awards enlarge it.

Celanese gives a full-year adjusted EPS range in its release and no quarterly EPS figure. With Q3 2026 results it guided full-year 2026 adjusted EPS of approximately $6.00 to $6.25, raised its free cash flow outlook to $750 to $800 million, and said it expects to end the year at net debt-to-operating EBITDA of approximately 4.7x. CEO Scott Richardson said Celanese expects year-end seasonal moderation across both businesses in the fourth quarter. (Celanese Q3 2026 release, Nov 2, 2026)

Celanese is also selling assets. It expects about $650 million of divestiture proceeds by the end of 2026, toward approximately $1 billion by the end of 2027, including about $152 million from selling a further 19 percent of the Nutrinova joint venture to Mitsui, expected to close in the fourth quarter of 2026. (Celanese Q3 2026 release, Nov 2, 2026)

A consensus figure is the average of the models published by the analysts who cover Celanese, collected by a data provider and revised up to the day of the report. A quarter that lands above it says how expectations were set as much as how the business did, and the share price on the day also reflects the guidance and the lines no consensus covers.

The consensus figures on this page are Yahoo Finance's, as pulled on the date shown. Each comes with the number of analysts behind it; the smaller that number, the more one revised estimate can move the average.

The figures below are the ones Celanese's own release and filings put weight on for Q3 2026, with the latest reported value for each.

What the quarter means for a holding is a separate question from what it reported. The case for and against owning CE is on is CE a buy or a sell?, what analysts expect next is on the CE forecast, and what the company does is on the Celanese Corporation (CE) stock page.

Every number on this page can be traced to a document Celanese published. Checking one takes a couple of minutes, and it is worth doing before you quote a figure anywhere.

• The results release is the document linked in the source line above. Companies publish it on their investor relations site at the moment results go out, and it carries the headline tables: revenue, operating income, net income and EPS for the quarter and the year-ago quarter.
• The same release is filed with the SEC as Exhibit 99.1 to a Form 8-K under Item 2.02, usually on the day of the report. The SEC copy does not change after the fact, which makes it the safer thing to link when you cite a number.
• The quarterly report (Form 10-Q) follows within a few weeks and carries the full financial statements, the segment note and management's discussion of what changed. The fourth quarter is covered by the annual report (Form 10-K) instead.
• Restated comparisons are flagged in the notes on this page. When a company redraws its segments or changes how it adjusts EPS, it restates the year-ago column, so the year-ago figure in a new release can differ from the one printed a year ago. This page always uses the comparison in the newer release, because that is the like-for-like one.

A walk-through of every line in a release, with what each one tells you, is in how to read an earnings report.