Through the Chemicals segment, the OMV Group was one of the world’s leading providers of advanced and circular polyolefin solutions and a European market leader in base chemicals and plastics recycling in 2025. It comprised OMV’s production of base chemicals, integrated within its operated refineries in Austria and Germany, Borealis’ base chemicals and polyolefins business, and several joint ventures. The Group has a considerable footprint in Europe and two strong partnerships, Borouge (with ADNOC) in the United Arab Emirates and Baystar (with TotalEnergies) in the United States, both held via Borealis, enabling the supply of services and products to customers around the globe. At the end of 2025, the production capacity, including joint ventures, amounted to 7.0 mn t of base chemicals, 6.4 mn t of polyolefins, with an almost equal split between polyethylene and polypropylene, and 0.8 mn t of polyolefin compounding. The polyolefin business operates in five industry clusters: Consumer Products, Energy, Health Care, Infrastructure, and Mobility.
On March 3, 2025, OMV and ADNOC signed a binding agreement for the combination of their shareholdings in Borealis and Borouge into Borouge Group International. Post-closing, the new entity, Borouge Group International, will be equally held and jointly controlled by OMV and ADNOC. ADNOC and OMV have also agreed that upon completion of the combination, Borouge Group International will acquire NOVA Chemicals for an enterprise value of USD 13.4 bn. NOVA Chemicals is a North American-based polyolefin producer and a leader in advanced packaging solutions and proprietary technologies. This acquisition will further strengthen BGI’s presence across the Americas and increase its exposure to advantaged feedstock. Borouge Group International will be uniquely positioned to create value and generate superior through-cycle shareholder returns, supported by synergies and a strong pipeline of organic growth projects. For more details, see Note 4 – OMV and ADNOC to Establish a New Polyolefins Joint Venture.
Base Chemicals
Base chemicals are building blocks for the chemical industry and are transformed into plastics, packaging, clothing, and many other consumer products. OMV directly operates two steam crackers, which are physically integrated into the refineries in Austria and in Germany, allowing for cost-competitive naphtha supply. Borealis operates two crackers, one in Sweden and one in Finland, which both feature high feedstock flexibility and are able to use a high share of light feedstock, providing an economic advantage. In Belgium, Borealis runs a propane dehydrogenation plant based on 100% propane feedstock. OMV produces base chemicals such as olefins (ethylene, propylene, butadiene, and high-purity isobutene) and aromatics (benzene and phenol).
Due to the continued economic downturn in Europe, which is burdening base chemicals demand, the OMV Group’s European crackers operated at slightly lower utilization rates in 2025 than the previous year, reaching 82% compared to 84% in 2024. The persisiting weak economic environment in Europe and the resulting low demand led to several cracker closures. While the closures contributed to market rebalancing in the first half of the year, supply-demand surplus persisted due to subdued demand and increased volumes of lower-cost imports. The recovery was further constrained by ongoing tariff uncertainties, heightened geopolitical tensions, and ongoing regional conflicts. The turnaround season remained comparably light, consistent with the previous year. Although marginally higher volumes were offline, the reduction was not sufficient to balance the market amid weaker demand. European cracker operating rates averaged 73%, up by one percentage point from last year’s average, largely due to the aforementioned permanent closures. In total, approximately 2.7 mn t of cracker capacity, equivalent to 13% of Western Europe’s total capacity, has been taken offline since 2024.
In 2025, butadiene demand stayed weak, especially in the second half amid automotive tariff concerns. In the first half of the year, supply was constrained by permanent closures and a shift to lighter feedstocks, while lower cracker output and exports to Asia kept the market balanced to tight. Overall, weak demand, derivative shutdowns, bearish sentiment, and oversupply continued to weigh on the market.
Domestic consumption of benzene declined due to weak demand; reductions in derivative exports, coupled with rising net imports of derivatives, eroded potential growth. The drop in local consumption forced producers to increasingly rely on export markets. However, a 15% tariff on European imports to the US limited export opportunities.
Growth Projects
Kallo
Borealis is currently constructing a second propane dehydrogenation (PDH) plant in Kallo (Belgium) to leverage the expected growth in propylene demand in Europe. PDH is a vital process step in the production of propylene from propane. As one of the most important building blocks in the entire chemical industry, propylene is also the raw material used to produce polypropylene (PP). The construction project made further progress in 2025, reaching a greenfield construction and pre-commissioning completion rate of over 97%. The plant is scheduled to commence operations in the second half of 2026. The new facility will have a production capacity of 740 kt p.a. of propylene and will be connected to the existing pipeline network in the Amsterdam-Rotterdam-Antwerp (ARA) area, enabling cost-effective and sustainable propylene transportation.
Polyolefins
Through its subsidiary Borealis, OMV was the second-largest polyolefins producer in Europe and among the top ten producers globally in 2025. The value-added polyolefin products of Borealis are the foundation of many valuable plastics applications that are an intrinsic part of modern life. Borealis operates eight polyolefin plants located in Schwechat, Stenungsund, Porvoo, and Burghausen, where they are backward-integrated into steam crackers, as well as in Beringen and Kallo, with PDH-integration, and plants in Antwerp and Geleen. In addition, Borealis operates several compounding plants in Europe, the United States, South Korea, and Brazil (JV with Braskem).
Building on its unique Borstar® polyolefin manufacturing technology, Borealis produces a large share of specialty polyolefin grades, which account for around 45% of the total equity sales volumes. While the standard polyolefins business is strongly influenced by imports from various regions around the world, the specialty grades are afforded greater protection due to their advanced technological integration and the Company’s close customer relationships. Borealis’ advanced virgin and circular polyolefins play a crucial role in increasing sustainability along the value chain by promoting efficient use of natural resources and energy efficiency in the following key industries: consumer products, energy, health care, infrastructure, and mobility.
During 2025, Borealis made substantial investment decisions for its European assets. Over EUR 100 mn is being invested in its production location in Burghausen (Germany). The investment includes a new production line which will triple the plant’s capacity to deliver Daploy™, an innovative high melt strength polypropylene (HMS PP) foamable solution designed for recyclability. Start-up is expected for the latter half of 2026. In Schwechat (Austria), EUR 100 mn is also being invested in a new PP compounding line. With start-up planned for the second half of 2026, the new line will bolster production of specialty compounds designed to be durable, heat resistant, and/or lightweight.
In 2025, the European polyolefins market remained subdued, weighed down by weak macroeconomic sentiment, policy uncertainty, and cautious buying behavior. Overall, the level of demand remained relatively unchanged versus 2024: stable yet anemic, due in part to persistent cost of living concerns. Import pressure remained high, particularly for polyethylene (PE), which is more globally traded than polypropylene (PP). In Europe, PE plant operating rates remained weak but improved compared to the previous year, supported by capacity rationalization. European PP operating rates weakened due to poor profitability, outages, and weak export demand. For further information about the market developments see the Business environment chapter.
Renewable and Circular Chemicals
Plastics are essential to modern life, keeping our food fresh, our vehicles light, and our medicines sterile. In many applications, plastics offer distinct advantages over alternatives, for example plastic food packaging is highly effective at maintaining sterility and extending shelf-life, thus helping to reduce food waste. Car components made from plastic are lightweight yet sturdy, reducing the car’s weight and consequently in-use emissions. Today, the majority of plastics are often produced, used once, and then disposed of in landfills or incinerated. The circular economy products we offer provide a solution to reducing the amount of single-use plastics. Based on the principles of reduce, reuse, and recycle, we aim to keep materials in use for many lifetime cycles, minimizing waste and decreasing the use of fossil resources in the production of new plastics. In this kind of circular economy, what might have been considered as plastic waste at one stage of the cycle will be seen as a valuable raw material at another stage.
Transitioning to a circular economy will require a full suite of different, complementary technologies. The familiar mechanical recycling focuses on end-of-life plastics, which are cleaned, mechanically flaked, melted down, and further processed into plastic granulate without significantly altering the material’s chemical structure. While it has proven to be effective and will likely remain the eco-efficient method of choice for the foreseeable future, mechanical recycling still faces limitations such as the processing of multi-layered feedstocks or its use in certain product applications, like contact-sensitive packaging.
In contrast, chemical recycling using pyrolysis breaks down plastics into their hydrocarbon building blocks by heating them up to 400–450°C in an inert atmosphere. The resulting pyrolysis oil is then further processed in the petrochemical plants at the Schwechat refinery to produce a virgin base chemical that replaces fossil hydrocarbons as chemical feedstock for the production of new plastics. Chemical recycling is a vital complement to mechanical recycling as it targets hard-to-recycle plastics. The resulting raw material used for plastics production is indistinguishable in quality from fossil feedstock. In addition, chemical recycling enables plastics to be recycled indefinitely without a reduction in quality, and the resulting feedstock is suitable for highly demanding applications such as products within the health care or energy industries and for contact-sensitive packaging. Chemical recycling further strengthens circularity in the plastics value chain and helps stakeholders throughout the process to achieve their sustainability targets.
We are committed to advancing the circular economy at every stage in the plastics life cycle, and are integrating circular principles as early as the product design phase. OMV also seeks to maximize the use of alternative feedstocks, including biomass and end-of-life plastics. In practice, OMV and Borealis operate proprietary mechanical and chemical recycling technologies and work on different strategies to secure end-of-life plastics as feedstock for our recycling processes. OMV aims to further increase the share of circular products in its overall production output by strengthening access to feedstock and increasing key mechanical and chemical recycling capabilities.
Partnerships for Feedstock Access
In October 2023, OMV announced the final investment decision to build an innovative sorting plant developed by Interzero, Europe’s leading provider of circular economy solutions, to produce feedstock for chemical recycling. For that purpose, OMV and Interzero established a joint venture, in which OMV holds 89.9% of the shares and 10.1% of the shares belong to Interzero. OMV is investing over EUR 170 mn in building this state-of-the-art facility in Walldürn, southern Germany. With a processing capacity of up to 260,000 t of post-consumer mixed waste plastic per year, this fully automatic sorting facility will be the first of its kind to produce feedstock for OMV’s chemical recycling on a large industrial scale. Construction began in the fourth quarter of 2023 and is currently advancing according to schedule, with production expected to start in 2026.
Mechanical Recycling
In the course of 2025, the integration of Integra Plastics EAD in Bulgaria was finalized, further boosting the Group’s advanced mechanical recycling output. Additional investments in that plant continue to lift the capacity beyond 20 kt p.a. This effort was further bolstered in June by the installation of a recyclate-based polyolefin compounding line in Beringen (Belgium), which started operation in November. This facility uses the continually upgraded Borcycle™ M technology to transform mechanically recycled post-consumer waste into high-quality rigid polypropylene and polyethylene compounds. The other mechanical recycling facilities in the Group are Italy-based Rialti S.p.A, Ecoplast Kunststoffrecycling GmbH in Austria, and mtm plastics GmbH in Germany.
Chemical Recycling
The OMV operated ReOil® pilot plant at the Schwechat refinery has been recycling post-consumer and post-industrial plastics into pyrolysis oil using a pyrolysis process since 2018. In 2024, OMV finalized the construction of a new plant based on its proprietary ReOil® technology, thereby scaling up its chemical recycling capacities. The plant with a nameplate capacity of 16,000 t p.a. has been successfully started up and the feedstock consists of ISCC PLUS-certified post-consumer plastic waste and is supplied by partners from across the value chain, including waste management companies and mechanical recycling companies such as the Borealis subsidiary Ecoplast. As a next step, OMV aims to develop a commercially viable industrial ReOil® plant at the Schwechat refinery with a processing capacity of up to 200,000 t p.a. In March 2025, OMV announced the signing of a grant agreement with CINEA, the European Climate, Infrastructure and Environment Executive Agency, for a grant from the EU Innovation Fund of up to EUR 81.6 mn.
At Borealis, a strategic partnership with BlueAlp, a Netherlands-based chemical recycling technology leader, was announced in December 2025. As a reflection of the company’s evolving engagement in the chemical recycling value chain, Borealis will transfer the majority of its shares in Renasci N.V. to BlueAlp while acquiring a 10% stake in it.
Joint Ventures
Borouge (Borealis 36%, ADNOC 54%, free float 10%)
Established in 1998, Borouge is a true success story of the long-term partnership with ADNOC. The joint venture has successfully combined the leading-edge Borstar® technology with competitive feedstock and access to growing Asian markets. Borouge runs ethane-based steam crackers with a capacity of 3.6 mn t p.a. and an olefin conversion unit, converting ethylene into propylene, with a total capacity of around 0.8 mn t p.a. In addition, Borouge operates polyolefin plants with a total production capacity of 5 mn t p.a., thereof 2.7 mn t of polyethylene, 2.2 mn t of polypropylene, and 0.1 mn t of other products. In June 2022, Borouge was listed on the Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange (ADX) with 10% of the total issued share capital. Through Borouge, the Group’s footprint reaches all the way to the Middle East, the Asia-Pacific region, the Indian subcontinent, and Africa. Borouge ADP, the production company, is based in the United Arab Emirates, while Borouge PTE, the marketing and sales company, is headquartered in Singapore.
Growth Projects
Borouge 4
The largest growth project currently underway is Borouge 4, situated within the Borouge joint venture founded by Borealis and the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) in 1998. Ground was broken in 2022 for the construction of Borouge 4, the new USD 6.2 bn facility at the existing complex in Ruwais (UAE), and construction is on schedule and around 90% complete. In preparation for the formation of Borouge Group International, Borealis’ 40% participation in Borouge 4 was transferred to OMV and to ADNOC. Following completion of the transaction in October 2025, OMV now holds 30% and ADNOC 70%. The Borouge 4 project will add a 1.5 mn t ethane-based steam cracker and two additional Borstar® polyethylene (PE) units with a total capacity of 1.4 mn t, as well as a 100 kt XLPE plant and a 1-Hexene unit. Commissioning activities for the first Borouge 4 facility, XLPE 2 – designed to produce highly specialized wire and cable solutions – commenced at the end of 2025, and further Borouge 4 plants are expected to be commissioned in 2026. The increased production capacity of advanced base chemicals and polyolefins that will be unlocked once Borouge 4 comes on stream will further enhance its role, as it will supply large volumes to customers in the Middle East and Asia as well as feedstock to the adjacent TA’ZIZ Industrial Chemicals Zone. Once fully operational, Borouge 4 is envisaged to be retransferred to Borouge Group International.
Baystar (Borealis 50%, TotalEnergies 50%)
The Baystar joint venture with TotalEnergies in Texas (US) operates an integrated world-scale 1 mn t ethane to polyethylene complex using the unique Borstar® technology. It includes a 1 mn t ethane cracker in Port Arthur, Texas, and three polyethylene units located in Pasadena, Texas. The two legacy polyethylene units, Bay 1 and Bay 2, have a combined capacity of 0.4 mn t, while the new Bay 3 unit has a capacity of 0.6 mn t. Bay 3, which is based on the latest Borstar® 3G technology, started up in October 2023. With the completion of the USD 1.4 bn unit, Baystar™ has more than doubled its production capacity. As a fully integrated petrochemicals venture, it can supply value-added specialty polymers to the booming energy, infrastructure, and consumer product sectors in North America.