Operator

Good morning. This is the conference operator. Welcome, and thank you for joining the Arkema First Quarter 2026 Results and Outlook Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] At this time, I would like to turn the conference over to Mr. Thierry Le Henaff, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer. Please go ahead, sir.

Thierry Le Hénaff
Chairman & CEO

Thank you very much. Good morning, everybody. Welcome to Arkema's Q1 '26 Results Conference Call.

Joining me today are Marie-Jose Donsion, our CFO; and the Investor Relations team. As always, to support this conference call, we have posted a set of slides which are available on our website. I will comment the highlights of the quarter before letting Marie-Jose go through the financials. And at the end of the presentation will be available, as usual, to answer your questions.

In the continuity of 2025, market conditions remained soft into January and February 2026 before improving in March. Regional trends were contrasted with demand continuing to be subdued in Europe and in the U.S., while Asia showed again solid momentum across several of our end markets. In addition, the quarter was once more affected by the depreciation of the U.S. dollar compared to last year, while this impact is expected to be more limited from the second quarter onwards.

End of February saw the outbreak of the conflict in the Middle East, which started to impact global supply