As filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on October 7, 2019

UNITED STATES

SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION

Washington, D.C. 20549

FORM 20-F

¨ REGISTRATION STATEMENT PURSUANT TO SECTION 12(b) OR

12(g) OF THE SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934

x ANNUAL REPORT PURSUANT TO SECTION 13 OR 15(d)

OF THE SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934

For the fiscal year ended December 31, 2017

¨ TRANSITION REPORT PURSUANT TO SECTION 13 OR 15(d)

OF THE SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934

¨ SHELL COMPANY REPORT PURSUANT TO SECTION 13 OR 15(d)

OF THE SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934

Commission file number: 001-14862

BRASKEM S.A.

(Exact Name of Registrant as Specified in its Charter)


N/A	The Federative Republic of Brazil
(Translation of Registrant’s Name into English)	(Jurisdiction of Incorporation or Organization)

Rua Lemos Monteiro, 120 – 24° andar
Butantã—São Paulo—SP, CEP 05501-050, Brazil

(Address of Principal Executive Offices)

Pedro van Langendonck Teixeira de Freitas

Braskem S.A.

Rua Lemos Monteiro, 120 – 24° andar

Butantã—São Paulo—SP, CEP 05501-050, Brazil

Telephone: + (55 11) 3576-9000

Fax: + (55 11) 3576-9532

(Name, Telephone, E-mail and/or Facsimile number and Address of Company Contact Person)

Securities registered or to be registered pursuant to Section 12(b) of the Act:


Title of Each Class	Name of Each Exchange on which Registered
Preferred Shares, Class A, without par value per share, each represented by American Depositary Receipts*	New York Stock Exchange

*On May 13, 2019, the New York Stock Exchange suspended trading of the Registrant’s American Depositary Shares and commenced proceedings to delist the Registrant. The Registrant has appealed the decision, which is pending.

Securities registered or to be registered pursuant to Section 12(g) of the Act: None

Securities for which there is a reporting obligation pursuant to Section 15(d) of the Act:

TITLE OF EACH CLASS:

6.450% Notes due 2024, issued by Braskem Finance Limited

The total number of issued shares of each class of stock of Braskem S.A. as of December 31, 2017 was:

451,668,652 Common Shares, without par value

345,010,622 Preferred Shares, Class A, without par value

578,330 Preferred Shares, Class B, without par value

Indicate by check mark if the registrant is a well-known seasoned issuer, as defined in Rule 405 of the Securities Act. Yes ¨ No x

If this report is an annual or transition report, indicate by check mark if the registrant is not required to file reports pursuant to Section 13 or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. Yes ¨ No x

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant (1) has filed all reports required to be filed by Section 13 or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to file such reports), and (2) has been subject to such filing requirements for the past 90 days. Yes x No ¨

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant has submitted electronically and posted on its corporate Web site, if any, every Interactive Data File required to be submitted and posted pursuant to Rule 405 of Regulation S-T (§232.405 of this chapter) during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to submit and post such files). Yes x No ¨

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a large accelerated filer, an accelerated filer, or a non-accelerated filer. See definition of “accelerated filer and large accelerated filer” in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act. (Check one):

Large accelerated filer x Accelerated filer ¨ Non-accelerated filer ¨ Emerging growth company ¨

If an emerging growth company that prepares its financial statements in accordance with U.S. GAAP, indicate by check mark if the registrant has elected not to use the extended transition period for complying with any new or revised financial accounting standards† provided pursuant to Section 13(a) of the Exchange Act. † The term “new or revised financial accounting standard” refers to any update issued by the Financial Accounting Standards Board to its Accounting Standards Codification after April 5, 2012.

Indicate by check mark which basis of accounting the registrant has used to prepare the financial statements included in this filing:

                         U.S. GAAP                         International Financial Reporting                Other ¨
              Standards as issued by the International
                   Accounting Standards Board  x

If “Other” has been checked in response to the previous question, indicate by check mark which financial statement item the registrant has elected to follow. ¨ Item 17 ¨ Item 18

If this is an annual report, indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a shell company (as defined in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act). Yes ¨ No x

PRESENTATION OF FINANCIAL AND OTHER INFORMATION

All references herein to the “real,” “reais” or “R$” are to the Brazilian real, the official currency of the Federative Republic of Brazil, or Brazil. All references to “U.S. dollars,” “dollars” or “US$” are to U.S. dollars, the official currency of the United States. All references to “CHF” are to Swiss francs, the official currency of Switzerland.

All references herein (1) to “we,” “us” or “our company” are references to Braskem S.A., its consolidated subsidiaries and jointly controlled entities, and (2) to “Braskem” are references solely to Braskem S.A. All references herein to “Braskem Europe” mean Braskem Europe GmbH and its consolidated subsidiaries, including Braskem America, Inc., or Braskem America.

Financial Statements

We maintain our books and records in reais. Our consolidated financial statements as of December 31, 2017 and 2016 and for the three years ended December 31, 2017 have been audited, as stated in the report appearing herein, and are included in this annual report.

We have prepared our consolidated financial statements included in this annual report in accordance with International Financial Reporting Standards, as issued by the International Accounting Standards Board, or IFRS.

Market Share and Other Information

We make statements in this annual report about our market share in the petrochemical industry in Brazil and our production capacity relative to that of other petrochemical producers in Brazil, other countries in Latin America, the United States and the world. We have made these statements on the basis of information obtained from third-party sources that we believe are reliable. We have calculated our Brazilian market share with respect to specific products by dividing our domestic net sales volumes of these products by the total Brazilian domestic consumption of these products. We derive information regarding the production capacity of other companies in the Brazilian petrochemical industry and the estimated total Brazilian domestic consumption of petrochemical products principally from reports published by the Brazilian Chemical Industry Association (Associação Brasileira da Indústria Química), or ABIQUIM. We derive information regarding the production capacity of other companies in the global petrochemical industry, international market prices for petrochemicals products and per capita consumption in certain geographic regions, principally from reports published by IHS, Inc., or IHS. We derive information relating to Brazilian imports and exports from the System for Analyzing International Trade (Sistema de Análise das Informações de Comércio Exterior – ALICE-Web), produced by the Brazilian Secretary of International Trade (Secretaria de Comércio Exterior) and the Brazilian Secretary of Development, Industry and Trade (Ministério do Desenvolvimento, Indústria e Comércio Exterior). We also include information and statistics regarding economic growth in emerging economies obtained from the International Monetary Fund, or IMF, and statistics regarding gross domestic product, or GDP, growth in Brazil, the United States, Europe and Mexico obtained from independent public sources such as the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (Instituto Brasileiro de Geografia e Estatística), or the IBGE; the U.S. Department of Commerce; Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union; and the Mexican Institute of Statistics and Geography (Instituto Nacional de Estadística y Geografía).

We have no reason to believe that any of this information is inaccurate in any material respect. However, we have not independently verified the production capacity, market share, market size or similar data provided by third parties or derived from industry or general publications.

We provide information regarding domestic apparent consumption of some of our products, based on information available from the Brazilian government, Institute of Applied Economic Research (Instituto de Pesquisa Econômica Aplicada) and ABIQUIM. Domestic apparent consumption is equal to domestic production plus imports minus exports. Domestic apparent consumption for any period may differ from actual consumption because this measure does not give effect to variations of inventory levels in the petrochemical supply chain.

Certain Industry Terms

As used in this annual report:

This annual report contains forward-looking statements. Some of the matters discussed concerning our business operations and financial performance include forward-looking statements within the meaning of the U.S. Securities Act of 1933, as amended, or the Securities Act, or the U.S. Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, or the Exchange Act.

Statements that are predictive in nature, that depend upon or refer to future events or conditions or that include words such as “expects,” “anticipates,” “intends,” “plans,” “believes,” “estimates” and similar expressions are forward-looking statements. Although we believe that these forward-looking statements are based upon reasonable assumptions, these statements are subject to several risks and uncertainties and are made in light of information currently available to us.

Our forward-looking statements may be influenced by numerous factors, including the following:

Our forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance, and our actual results or other developments may differ materially from the expectations expressed in the forward-looking statements. As for forward-looking statements that relate to future financial results and other projections, actual results will be different due to the inherent uncertainty of estimates, forecasts and projections. Because of these uncertainties, potential investors should not rely on these forward-looking statements.

PART I

ITEM 1. IDENTITY OF DIRECTORS, SENIOR MANAGEMENT AND ADVISERS

Not applicable.

ITEM 2. OFFER STATISTICS AND EXPECTED TIMETABLE

Not applicable.

ITEM 3. KEY INFORMATION

Selected Financial and Other Information

The following selected information should be read in conjunction with “Presentation of Financial and Other Information,” “Item 5. Operating and Financial Review and Prospects” and our audited consolidated financial statements and the related notes thereto, which are included in this annual report.

The selected financial data as of December 31, 2017 and 2016 and for the three years ended December 31, 2017 have been derived from our audited consolidated financial statements, prepared in accordance with IFRS, and included in this annual report.

In 2017, Braskem’s management commenced classifying interest payments as interest paid in cash flow from operations rather than interest paid under cash used in investment activities. This change allows: (i) the direct identification of the total amount paid as interest; and (ii) greater accuracy in determining the net cash generated by operating activities. As a result of this change, we reclassified interest paid during the periods ended December 31, 2016 and 2015 of R$288.4 million and R$786.1 million, respectively.

In 2017, we standardized the classification of provision for profit sharing across all of our subsidiaries, regardless of whether such subsidiaries were productive. We commenced this standardization because we deemed the current classification more appropriate, since this provision does not present recurring elements or, even when recurring, the amounts differ from year to year.

During the years ended December 31, 2016 and 2015, we reclassified costs of goods sold of R$163.1 million and R$165.5 million, selling and distribution expenses of R$7.2 million and R$5.8 million and general and administrative expenses of R$191.6 million and R$185.1 million, respectively, to the “participation of members in profits and results” line item under other income (expenses), net. See note 29 of our audited financial statements for further information.

We have included information with respect to the dividends and/or interest attributable to shareholders’ equity paid to holders of our common shares and preferred shares since January 1, 2013 in reais and in U.S. dollars translated from reais at the commercial market selling rate in effect as of the payment date under the caption “Item 8. Financial Information—Dividends and Dividend Policy—Payment of Dividends.”

We prepare individual financial statements in accordance with the accounting practices adopted in Brazil pursuant to Law 6,404/76, as amended, or the Brazilian Corporation Law, and the standards issued by the Comitê de Pronunciamentos Contábeis, or the CPC, including for the calculation of dividends.

	2017	2017	2016 Adjusted(2)	2015 Adjusted(2)	2014 Adjusted(2)	2013 Adjusted(2)
	(in millions of US$, except per share data and as indicated) (1)	(in millions of **reais, except per share data)**

Statement of Operations Data:

Net sales revenue	14,891.4	49,260.6	47,664.0	46,880.0	45,135.9	40,229.0
Cost of products sold	(10,936.3)	(36,177.4)	(34,985.6)	(36,697.8)	(39,205.3)	(35,059.9)
Gross profit	3,955.1	13,083.2	12,678.4	10,182.2	5,930.6	5,169.1
Income (expenses):
Selling and Distribution	(441.2)	(1,459.6)	(1,403.7)	(1,077.3)	(1,035.2)	(923.1)
General and administrative	(433.6)	(1,434.3)	(1,285.6)	(1,095.4)	(1,038.4)	(897.5)
Research and development	(50.6)	(167.5)	(162.0)	(169.6)	(128.1)	(115.7)
Results from equity investments	12.1	40.0	30.1	2.2	3.9	(3.2)
Other income (expenses), net	(258.4)	(854.9)	(3,906.0)	(952.3)	(262.9)	(593.1)
Operating profit	2,783.4	9,206.9	5,951.2	6,889.8	3,469.9	2,636.5
Financial results:
Financial expenses	(1,132.8)	(3,747.2)	(3,571.0)	(3,163.4)	(2,716.4)	(2,534.2)
Financial income	182.5	603.6	690.1	584.9	399.9	772.0
Exchange rate variations, net	(241.5)	(798.8)	(3,210.4)	102.9	(84.1)	7.1
Financial expenses, net	(1,191.8)	(3,942.3)	(6,091.3)	(2,475.6)	(2,400.6)	(1,755.1)
Profit (loss) before income tax and social contribution	1,591.5	5,264.6	(140.1)	4,414.2	1,069.3	881.4
Current and deferred income tax and social contribution	(410.4)	(1,357.7)	(616.0)	(1,660.4)	(491.0)	(456.7)
Profit (loss) from continuing operations	1,181.2	3,906.9	(756.1)	2,753.8	578.4	424.7
Discontinued operations results	2.7	8.9	26.9	6.4	0.1	15.7
Profit (loss) for the year	1,183.7	3,915.8	(729.2)	2,760.2	578.2	440.4

Profit (loss) for the year attributable to Company´s shareholders	1,168.5	3,865.4	(411.5)	3,001.7	716.0	443.1
Loss attributable to non-controlling interest in subsidiaries	15.2	50.3	(317.7)	(241.5)	(137.8)	(2.7)

Profit (loss) per share:
Basic:
Common shares		4.8479	(0.5511)	3.7651	1.0857	0.5210
Preferred class “A” shares		4.8479	(0.5511)	3.7651	1.0857	0.6062
Preferred class “B” shares		0.6069	—	0.6065	0.6062	0.6062

Diluted:
Common shares		4.8590	(0.5173)	3.7732	1.0857	0.5210
Preferred class “A” shares		4.8590	(0.5173)	3.7732	1.0857	0.6062
Preferred class “B” shares		0.6069	—	0.6065	0.6062	0.6062
ADS(3)		9.7180	(1.0346)	7.5464	2.1714	1.2124


	2017	2017	2016	2015	2014	2013
	(in millions of US$, except per share data and as indicated) (1)	(in millions of **reais, except as indicated)**

Balance Sheet Data:

Cash and cash equivalents and financial investments(2)	1,837.3	6,077.8	7,892.3	7,458.2	3,085.7	4,335.9
Current trade accounts receivable	991.9	3.281,2	1,634.1	2,755.7	2,409.1	2,792.3
Inventories(3)	2,007.3	6,640.0	5,238.0	6,243.7	5,688.3	5,172.4
Property, plant and equipment	8,996.9	29,761.6	29,336.7	34,100.3	29,071.0	25,410.1
Total assets	15,940.7	52,731.8	51,821.9	60,626.9	49,501.9	46,844.6
Current borrowings	358.2	1,184.8	2,594.5	1,970.0	1,419.5	1,249.6
Non-current borrowings	6,703.9	22,176.6	20,736.6	25,380.5	18,926.7	17,362.9
Capital	2,431,4	8,043.2	8,043.2	8,043.2	8,043.2	8,043.2
Shareholders’ equity (including non-controlling interest in subsidiaries)	1,654.4	5,472.8	1,720.7	945.5	5,597.1	7,543.9

Other Financial and Operating Information:

*Cash Flow Information:*
Net cash generated by (used in):
Operating activities	744.1	2,461.6	4,457.9	7,091.7	3,813.1	2,457.8
Investing activities	(727.4)	(2,406.4)	(2,552.5)	(3,334.2)	(5,054.1)	(4,954.2)
Financing activities	(903.4)	(2,988.5)	(2,757.3)	(97.5)	894.4	3,614.2

*Other Information:*
Capital expenditures:
Property, plant and equipment	(687.2)	(2,273.2)	(2,586.5)	(3,337.9)	(5,378.8)	(5,656.4)
Investments in other companies	183.9	(608.2)	—	—	0.1	—

**Total Sales Volume Data (in thousands of tons)***:

Ethylene(4)		624.6	576.1	548.6	511.4	535.4
Propylene(4)		403.5	370.6	416.5	445.7	389.0
Polyethylene (PE)		2.711.6	2,729.7	2,626.9	2,386.5	2,543.7
Polypropylene (PP)		1,687.2	1,671.9	1,513.1	1,591.9	1,580.8
Polyvinyl chloride (PVC)		607.7	645.2	594.9	659.6	636.5

The Brazilian foreign exchange system allows the purchase and sale of foreign currency and the international transfer of reais by any person or legal entity, regardless of the amount, subject to certain regulatory procedures. Since 1999, the Central Bank has allowed the U.S. dollar-real exchange rate to float freely, and, since then, the U.S. dollar-real exchange rate has fluctuated considerably.

In the past, the Central Bank has intervened occasionally to control unstable movements in foreign exchange rates. We cannot predict whether the Central Bank or the Brazilian government will continue to permit the real to float freely or will intervene in the exchange rate market through the return of a currency band system or otherwise. The real may depreciate or appreciate against the U.S. dollar substantially. Furthermore, Brazilian law provides that, whenever there is a serious imbalance in Brazil’s balance of payments or there are serious reasons to foresee a serious imbalance, temporary restrictions may be imposed on remittances of foreign capital abroad. We cannot assure you that such measures will not be taken by the Brazilian government in the future. See “—Risk Factors—Risks Relating to Brazil—Brazilian government exchange control policies could increase the cost of servicing our foreign currency-denominated debt, adversely affect our ability to make payments under our foreign currency-denominated debt obligations and impair our liquidity” and “—Risk Factors—Risks Relating to Our Class A Preferred Shares and the ADSs— If holders of the ADSs exchange them for class A preferred shares, they may risk temporarily losing, or being limited in, the ability to remit foreign currency abroad and certain Brazilian tax advantages.”

The cyclical nature of the petrochemical industry may reduce our net sales revenue and gross margin.

The petrochemical industry, including the global markets in which we compete, is cyclical and sensitive to changes in global supply and demand. This cyclicality may reduce our net sales revenue, increase our costs and decrease our gross margin, including as follows:

Historically, the international petrochemical markets have experienced alternating periods of limited supply, which have caused prices and profit margins to increase, followed by expansion of production capacity, which has resulted in oversupply and reduced prices and profit margins. Prices in the petrochemical industry follow the global petrochemical industry, and we establish the prices for the products we sell in Brazil, other countries in Latin America, the United States and the world with reference to international market prices. Therefore, our net sales revenue and gross margin are increasingly linked to global industry conditions that we cannot control, and which may adversely affect our results of operations and financial position.

Our revenue from customers is significant, and the credit risks associated with certain of these customers could adversely affect our results of operations.

We engage in a number of transactions where counterparty credit risk is a relevant factor, including transactions with customers and those businesses we work with to provide services, among others. These risks are dependent upon market conditions and also the real and perceived viability of the counterparty. The failure or perceived weakness of any of our counterparties has the potential to expose us to risk of loss in certain situations. Our revenue from our customers is significant, and the credit risks associated with certain of these customers could adversely affect our results of operations. Certain contracts and arrangements that we enter into with counterparties may provide us with indemnification clauses to protect us from financial loss. To the extent the credit quality of these customers deteriorates or these customers seek bankruptcy protection, our ability to collect our receivables, and ultimately our results of operations, may be adversely affected.

Our results may be adversely affected by increases in expected credit losses.

We have a large balance of accounts receivable and have established a reserve for the portion of such accounts receivable that we estimate will not be collected because of our customers’ non-payment.

If the business viability of certain of our customers deteriorates or our credit policies are ineffective in reducing our exposure to credit risk, additional increases in expected credit losses accounts may be necessary, which could have a material adverse effect on our cash flows and results of operations. We record expected credit losses in an amount we consider sufficient to cover estimated losses on the realization of our trade accounts receivable, taking into account our loss experience and the aging of our accounts receivable, but we cannot assure you that these amounts will be sufficient to cover eventual losses.

As of December 31, 2017, our total trade accounts receivable was R$3,318.7 million and the expected credit losses were R$350.0 million.

Global macroeconomic factors have had, and may continue to have, adverse effects on the margins that we realize on our products.

Our results of operations may be materially affected by adverse conditions in the financial markets and depressed economic conditions generally. Economic downturns in geographic areas or jurisdictions in which we sell our products may substantially reduce demand for our products and result in decreased sales volumes. Recessionary environments adversely affect our business because demand for our products is reduced.

According to the IMF, the global economy grew 3.3% in 2018, an increase of 0.7 p.p. as compared to global economic growth during 2017. In 2018, Brazil’s GDP grew 1.1%, compared to a 1.0% growth in 2017 and contractions of 3.5% and 3.8% in 2016 and 2015, respectively.

For the United States, the IMF reported GDP growth of 2.9% in 2018 compared to growth of 2.3%, 1.5% and 2.6% in 2017, 2016 and 2015, respectively. In addition, the IMF reported GDP growth of 2.2% in 2018 for Europe and growth of 2.2% in Mexico in 2018.

Our ability to export to other countries depends on the level of economic growth in those countries and other economic conditions, including prevailing inflation and interest rates. In addition, disruptions in the global balance between supply and demand may impair our ability to export our products in response to a decline in domestic demand for these products. Prolonged volatility in economic activity in our key export markets, such as South America, Europe and Asia, could continue to reduce demand for some of our products and lead to increased margin pressure by importers into Brazil, which would adversely affect our results of operations.

We face competition from producers of polyethylene, polypropylene, PVC and other petrochemical products.

We face strong competition across all of our petrochemical products. Our U.S. operations face competition in the United States from other U.S. producers of polypropylene and the other foreign producers of polypropylene that serve the United States. Our German operations face competition in Europe and the other export markets that it serves from European and other foreign producers of polypropylene. Our Mexico operations face competition from Mexican and U.S. producers of polyethylene producers. Competitors from South America are able to export to Brazil with reduced or no import duties. In addition, producers of almost all continents have regular or spot sales to trading companies and direct customers in Brazil for petrochemicals and resins.

We generally set the prices for our second generation products sold in Brazil with reference to the prices charged for these products by foreign producers in international markets. We generally set the prices for our second generation products exported from Brazil based on international spot market prices. We set the prices for polypropylene sold in the United States and Europe based on regional market pricing. The price for polyethylene in Mexico is based on prices for the polymer in the U.S. Gulf Coast region.

As a result of the recently commissioned gas-based ethylene capacity in the United States, coupled with the competitive pricing of the ethane as feedstock for petrochemicals production, we anticipate that we may experience increased competition from producers of thermoplastic resins, especially from North American producers, in the markets in which we sell these products. In addition, the appreciation of the real against the U.S. dollar may increase the competitiveness of prices of imported products in reais, which may increase the competition in Brazil from other producers of second generation products. Some of our foreign competitors are substantially larger and have greater financial, manufacturing, technological and/or marketing resources than us.

We may face competition from producers of substitutes for our products as a result of evolving technology, consumer and industry trends and preferences, and regulatory changes.

We compete in a market that relies on technological innovation and the ability to adapt to evolving consumer and industry trends and preferences. Petrochemical products and other products produced with our petrochemical products, such as consumer plastic items, are subject to changing consumer and industry trends, demands and preferences, as well as stringent regulatory and environmental requirements. Therefore, products once favored may, over time, become disfavored by consumers or industries or no longer be perceived as the best option.

In addition, plastic waste management, disposal and recycling have become a growing global environmental concern and have been receiving as much attention as other environmental topics, such as global warming, from the population at large, national and local governments, private companies, trend setters, and consumers worldwide. There has been a growing trend to attempt to move away from the usage of plastic products, which has been backed by governmental and lawmaking initiatives, as well as investments in plastic recycling systems by private companies, public entities and national and local governments. In November 2018, we issued a statement in support of the development of certain initiatives to foster a “circular economy” (reusing and repurposing resources within the economy), including: (i) partnerships to develop new products and applications to improve efficiency and promote recycling and reuse (circular design), especially for single-use packaging; (ii) investing in the development of new renewable products to support the circular economy at the beginning of the value chain; (iii) supporting and developing new technologies, business models and systems for collecting, recycling and recovering materials, considering the best balance of economic, social and environmental impacts; (iv) engaging consumers in recycling and recovery programs, especially through educational programs in connection with responsible consumerism to further knowledge on the value of plastic waste to the economy; (v) supporting and using life cycle assessment tools to select the most sustainable option, considering the economic, social and environmental impacts of plastic; (vi) supporting the measurement and communication of recycling and recovery indicators for plastic packaging materials; (vii) building partnerships to understand, prevent and solve the problem of debris in the oceans, with support from the scientific community and researchers; and (viii) supporting comprehensive science-based policies to understand the origins of and prevent debris in the oceans and to improve the management of solid waste, especially plastics. Despite these initiatives and other initiatives carried out within our industry, we may be unable to increase post-consumer plastic waste recycling rates, which may lead to decreased interest in our products by our customers and consumers, and impact our results of operations and financial condition.

Our continued success depends on our ability to continue to differentiate ourselves and our products and also to react to changes in these trends. Factors that may affect consumer perception of our products, or of consumer goods produced with our products, may include health trends and attention to substitute products perceived as more environmentally friendly. For example, in recent years, we have witnessed a shift in consumer preference moving away from plastic straws and in favor of straws made from other materials, such as paper or other compounds. A failure to react to similar trends in the future could enable our competitors to grow or secure their market share before we have a chance to respond.

In addition, regulations may be amended or enacted in the future that would make it more difficult to appeal to our customers, end consumers, or to leverage the products that we produce. Even if we are able to continue to distinguish our products, there can be no assurance that our competitors (including producers of substitutes) will not be successful in persuading consumers of our products to switch to their products. Some of our competitors may have greater access to resources than we do, which may better position them to react and adapt to evolving trends, preferences, and regulatory changes. Any loss of interest in our products, or consumer products produced with our products, may have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations and financial condition.

Higher raw materials costs would increase our cost of products sold and may reduce our gross margin and negatively affect our overall financial performance.

Naphtha, a crude oil derivative, is the principal raw material used by our Chemicals Unit (formerly our Basic Petrochemicals Unit) and, indirectly, in our other business units in Brazil. Naphtha accounted, directly and indirectly, for 41.8% of our consolidated cost of products sold in 2018 and 40.0% in 2017, respectively.

Ethane and propane are the principal raw materials that we use to produce our basic petrochemical products in our petrochemical complex located in Duque de Caxias in the State of Rio de Janeiro, or the Rio de Janeiro Complex, and represent the principal production and operating cost of our Chemicals Unit. Ethane and propane accounted, directly and indirectly, for 0.6% and 1.2%, respectively, of our consolidated cost of products sold in 2018 and for 0.6% and 0.9%, respectively, of our consolidated cost of products sold in 2017.

Propylene is the principal raw material that we use to produce polypropylene in the United States and Europe and represents the principal production and operating cost of our USA and Europe Unit. We also purchase propylene in the Brazilian market for our Brazilian polypropylene plants. Propylene accounted, directly and indirectly, for 21.7% and 19.4% of our consolidated costs of products sold in 2018 and 2017, respectively.

Ethane is the principal raw material that we use to produce ethylene in the Mexico Complex and represents the principal production and operating cost of the Mexico Complex. Ethane accounted, directly and indirectly, for 1.0% and 1.4% of our consolidated costs of products sold in 2018 and 2017, respectively.

In Brazil, we purchase the naphtha used by our Chemicals Unit at prices based on the Amsterdam-Rotterdam-Antwerp naphtha price, or the ARA price, and the ethane and propane at Mont Belvieu market prices. We purchase ethane used by our Mexico Unit at prices based on the Mont Belvieu purity ethane. We purchase the propylene used in Brazil and USA plants at prices based on U.S. Gulf reference price, or the USG price. We purchase the propylene used in our Europe plants as reported by ICIS-LOR, based on monthly contract price for propylene for Europe. We purchase refinery off gas at a price related to imported natural gas price.

The ARA price of naphtha fluctuates primarily based on changes in the U.S. dollar-based price of Brent crude oil on the Intercontinental Exchange based in London. The ARA price of naphtha averaged US$485 per ton, up 26% from 2016, in line with the 25% increase in oil prices explained primarily by the agreement among the members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, or OPEC, to cut production.

In 2017 the Mont Belvieu prices of ethane averaged 25 cents per gallon, or US$184 per ton, increasing 26% from 2016, following the trend observed in naphtha and other basic raw materials.

In 2017 the USG price for propylene averaged US$986 per ton, 30% higher than 2016, explained by the high propane price and the low level of inventories.

The European price reference for propylene averaged US$946 per ton in 2017, or 30% higher than the previous year, explained by higher oil prices and the increasing amount of gas being used in detriment of naphtha as raw material in the European crackers, which reduces the supply of propylene in the region.

The price of naphtha, ethane, propane and propylene in U.S. dollars has been, and may continue to be, volatile. In addition, fluctuations of the U.S. dollar in the future may effectively increase our naphtha or natural gas costs in reais. Any increase in naphtha, ethane, propane or propylene costs would reduce our gross margin and negatively affect our overall financial performance to the extent we are unable to pass on these increased costs to our customers and could result in reduced sales volumes of our products.

We do not hedge against changes in the price of our principal raw materials, so we are exposed to fluctuations in the price of these primary raw materials.

Currently, we do not hedge our feedstock’s price exposure. We believe the petrochemical industry has a natural hedge, mainly due to the historical correlation between its feedstock (most notably, naphtha) and its final products (polyethylene, polypropylene, PVC and others). Historically, fluctuations in the price of naphtha were followed by corresponding variations in first and second generation petrochemical products. Any hedge solely in naphtha’s price would break this natural protection, most likely making our results more volatile. However, in light of our ongoing process of feedstock diversification, and with ethane and propane representing a more significant portion of our variable costs, the natural hedge described above has weakened. This occurs because ethane and propane have a significantly lower correlation to the prices of our final products, when compared to naphtha and propylene. As result, and more so than in the past, when the price of naphtha or propylene fluctuate we may not be able to pass on to our end-consumers all of the corresponding increases in our feedstocks costs.

We depend on Petrobras to supply us with a substantial portion of our naphtha, ethane, propane and propylene needs.

Petróleo Brasileiro S.A. – Petrobras, or Petrobras, is the only Brazilian supplier of naphtha and has historically supplied up to 70% of the naphtha consumed by our Chemicals Unit. In 2017, Petrobras supplied approximately 50% of the naphtha consumed by our Chemicals Unit. Currently, Petrobras is also our primary supplier of ethane, propane and refinery off gas and has historically supplied the ethane, propane and refinery off gas consumed at our petrochemical complex located in the Rio de Janeiro Complex and our chemical complex located in Capuava in the State of São Paulo, or the São Paulo Complex.

We are party to several propylene contracts with Petrobras refineries, which have historically supplied 40% of our propylene need to produce polypropylene in Brazil. As a result of limited infrastructure in Brazil to allow the importation of propylene in large quantities and substantial costs associated with the storage and transportation of the product, we are highly dependent on the propylene supplied by Petrobras.

Our Petrobras ethane and propane supply agreements expire in January 2021, and our Petrobras naphtha purchase agreement expires in December 2020. Certain of our propylene agreements with Petrobras expire in 2021, while the remainder expire between 2028 and 2029. As of the date of this annual report, we cannot assure you that these agreements will be renewed and, if renewed, whether we will be able to keep the same terms and conditions currently in force, including with respect to pricing, volume, pipeline and other infrastructure access.

Petrobras controls a substantial portion of the pipeline infrastructure used to transport naphtha across Brazil and is our primary supplier of naphtha, ethane, propane and propylene. A failure to renew or extend our existing agreements for the supply of raw materials or pipeline infrastructure use, or a termination of such agreements with Petrobras could lead to difficulties in accessing Petrobras’ pipeline infrastructure. The alternative would be to access pipeline infrastructure through the National Petroleum Agency, or the ANP, which would grant access to the pipeline infrastructure at a cost defined by the ANP.

Therefore, our production volumes and net sales revenue would likely decrease, while our costs would likely increase, and adversely affect our overall financial performance in the event of the following:

In addition, although regulatory changes have ended Petrobras’ monopoly in the Brazilian naphtha market and have allowed us to import naphtha, any restrictions imposed on the importation of naphtha into Brazil could increase our production costs. For a discussion of additional risks related to sole-source suppliers, see “—We rely on limited or sole-source suppliers for our raw materials.”

We depend on propylene supplied by third parties in the United States and Europe.

Our reliance on third party suppliers poses significant risks to our results of operations, business and prospects. We rely upon third parties to supply our plants with propylene. We acquire propylene for our polypropylene plants in the United States under several long-term supply agreements and through the spot market. As of December 31, 2018, we had long-term supply agreements with multiple suppliers. The pricing formulas for propylene under these supply agreements are generally based on market prices. As of the date of this annual report, we cannot assure you that these agreements will be renewed and, if renewed, whether we will be able to keep the same terms and conditions currently in force, including with respect to pricing, volume, pipeline and other infrastructure access.

We acquire propylene for our polypropylene plants in Germany under long-term supply agreements that provide for the supply of approximately 90% of the propylene requirements of these plants. We have two main supply agreements in Germany. One will expire in September 2021 and is automatically renewable for consecutive one-year terms, unless terminated by one of the parties, and the other expires in December 2021. We have entered into a third contract that will expire at the end of 2020, increasing the supply of our plants to 94% of the propylene required. The pricing formula for propylene under these supply agreements is based on market prices. As of the date of this annual report, we cannot assure you that these agreements will be renewed and, if renewed, whether we will be able to keep the same terms and conditions currently in force, including with respect to pricing, volume, pipeline and other infrastructure access.

Delays in the availability of propylene of acceptable quality, or our inability to obtain such acceptable propylene in the quantities we need over what has been contracted, or at all, may adversely affect our revenue and results of operations.

We depend on ethane supplied by Pemex TRI in Mexico.

In Mexico, Braskem Idesa S.A.P.I., or Braskem Idesa, our joint venture with Grupo Idesa, S.A. de C.V., or Idesa, has entered into a long-term delivery or pay under competitive commercial conditions supply contract (the “ethane supply agreement”) to purchase an agreed-upon volume of ethane from Pemex Transformación Industrial (successor of Pemex Gas y Petroquímica Básica), or Pemex TRI, a state-owned Mexican company, that is a subsidiary of Petróleos Mexicanos, or Pemex, the state-owned Mexican oil and gas company. This agreement’s initial expiration date is in 2035. Termination of the ethane supply agreement by Pemex TRI or any prolonged interruption, discontinuation or other disruption in the supply of ethane to Braskem Idesa could significantly impact the operations of our Mexico Complex and have a material adverse effect on our overall financial performance. The provisions for early termination by Pemex TRI include, but are not limited to, (i) a failure of Braskem Idesa to pay that continues for more than 180 days after notice, or (ii) an emergency stoppage in operations or force majeure event that continues for more than 48 months. The loss of Pemex TRI as a supplier of ethane could lead to the interruption of operations in our Mexico Complex and require us to find a suitable alternative source. There can be no assurance that in the event of termination of this agreement or other disruption in the supply of ethane to Braskem Idesa by Pemex TRI, we will be able to replace such supplier in a timely manner and on favorable terms, and prevent any unscheduled interruption of our operations.

Additionally, our production volumes and net sales revenue would likely decrease and adversely affect our overall financial performance in the event of (i) a significant damage to Pemex TRI’s refineries or to the port facilities that Pemex TRI uses to import ethane, or to any of the pipelines connecting our plants to Pemex TRI’s facilities, whether as a consequence of an accident, natural disaster, fire, stoppage, force majeure event, or otherwise, or (ii) a failure by Pemex TRI to supply to us the agreed-upon volume of ethane, or at least the minimum volume of ethane, under the ethane supply agreement (as further discussed below).

The ethane supply agreement contains a volume delivery long-term performance covenant that requires Pemex TRI to meet a volume delivery of ethane over a six-month period averaging 70% of the agreed-upon volume under the ethane supply agreement (the “Long-Term Performance Test”). As of January 2019, Pemex TRI volume deliveries under the Long-Term Performance Test remained close to the 70% threshold. In the event that Pemex TRI fails to meet the Long-Term Performance Test, in addition to the direct negative impact on the production volumes of our Mexico Complex, it may (i) render us unable to generate sufficient cash to service our indebtedness with creditors under the Braskem Idesa Financing, (ii) cause such creditors to accelerate this indebtedness, and/or (iii) require Braskem Idesa to exercise a termination and put option against Pemex TRI that would force Pemex TRI to purchase the Mexico Complex from us. See “Item 4. Information on the Company—Mexico Unit—Supply Contracts of the Mexico Unit—Ethane” and “Item 5. Operating and Financial Review and Prospects—Capital Expenditures—Joint Venture—Mexico Complex.”

For a discussion of additional risks related to sole-source suppliers, see “—We rely on limited or sole-source suppliers for our raw materials.”

We rely on Petrobras for most or all of our supply of naphtha, ethane, propane, refinery off gas and propylene in Brazil, a few companies for a large portion of our supply of propylene in our USA and Europe Units, and Pemex TRI for our supply of ethane in Mexico. As a result, we are subject to substantial risks because of our reliance on these and other limited or sole-source suppliers, including the following risks:

Delays in the availability of naphtha, ethane, propane, refinery off gas or propylene of acceptable quality, or our inability to obtain such acceptable naphtha, ethane, propane or propylene in the quantities we need or at all, may adversely affect our revenue and results of operations.

Our Polyolefins Unit and Vinyls Unit depend on our Chemicals Unit to supply them with their ethylene and propylene requirements. In addition, our plants located at the Camaçari Complex in the Brazilian state of Bahia depend on certain providers of environmental services for the treatment of effluents, industrial waste and water supply for industrial use.

Our Chemicals Unit is the only supplier of ethylene to our Vinyls Unit, the only supplier of ethylene to the polyethylene plants and the principal supplier of propylene to the polypropylene plants of our Polyolefins Unit. Because the cost of storing and transporting ethylene is substantial and there is inadequate infrastructure in Brazil to permit the importing of large quantities of ethylene and propylene, our Polyolefins Unit in Brazil and our Vinyls Unit are highly dependent on the supply of these products by our Chemicals Unit. Consequently, our production volumes of, and net sales revenue from, Polyolefins and Vinyls products would decrease, and our overall financial performance would be negatively affected, in the event of the following:

Our plants located at the Camaçari Complex in the Brazilian state of Bahia depend on our subsidiaries Cetrel S.A. (“Cetrel”) and Água de Camaçari (“DAC”) for the: (i) treatment of effluents and industrial waste; (ii) supply of reuse water; (iii) supply of demineralized, clarified and potable water; and (iv) management of water reservoirs. An interruption in the operations of Cetrel or DAC may result in the shutdown of all of our plants at the Camaçari Complex, in addition to increased environmental risks, which could lead to the shutdown of our entire petrochemical complex. If such a shutdown were to happen, our production volumes and net sales revenue from sales from our plants at the Camaçari Complex would decrease, and our financial performance and results of operations would be adversely affected.

See also “—Our business is inherently subject to environmental, health and safety hazards. As a result, our business is also subject to stringent environmental and other regulations” below.

We may be materially adversely affected if our transportation, storage and distribution operations are interrupted or are more costly than anticipated.

Our operations are dependent upon uninterrupted transportation, storage and distribution of our products. Transportation, storage or distribution of our products could be partially or completely, temporarily or permanently shut down as the result of any number of circumstances that are not within our control, such as:

· catastrophic events;

· strikes or other labor difficulties; and

· other disruptions in means of transportation.

For example, in May 2018, Brazil experienced a national truck drivers’ strike that severely impacted the logistics operations of many companies throughout Brazil, including the delivery of our raw materials, our products, and other goods. In response to such strike, we gradually reduced the utilization rate of our petrochemical complexes in Brazil, which operated at 50% of their nominal capacity in May 2018. Following the strike, Brazil introduced a national freight cost schedule that set forth minimum prices for freight services provided by truck drivers and freight companies countrywide, which may have a lasting impact on freight prices in Brazil and lead to sustained increased transportation costs in the future in connection with our operations.

Any significant interruption at our distribution facilities, an inability to transport our products to, or from these facilities, or to or from our domestic or foreign customers or suppliers, or an increase in transportation costs, for any reason would materially adversely affect us.

We rely on access to third-party licensed technology and related intellectual property, particularly in the context of the manufacturing process of certain of our products. If the licensed third-party technology and intellectual property that we use cease to be available to us on commercially reasonable terms, or at all, or if any such third-party ceases to provide us with technical support under license or technical services agreements that we have entered into with them to allow us to satisfactorily operate, certain of our production facilities, our operating results and financial condition could be adversely affected.

We use technology and intellectual property licensed from third parties in the regular operation of our business, partircularly in the operation of certain machinery and equipment required for the production of certain of our products such as our first and second generation products, and we may continue to rely on access to third-party technology and intellectual property in the future.

There can be no assurance that we will be able to continue to obtain or renew any such necessary technology and licenses on acceptable terms, or at all. Failure to obtain or renew the right to use third-party technology or intellectual property on commercially reasonable terms, or to maintain access to satisfactory technical support, could ultimately lead to stoppages in our production processes and preclude us from selling certain products, which could have a material adverse impact on our operating results and financing condition.

Additionally, our inability to maintain existing access to third-party technology, licenses and technical support on commercially reasonable terms or at all, or to obtain additional technology, licenses or technical support necessary to manufacture current products or develop new ones, could require us to obtain substitute technology or licenses at a greater cost or of lower quality or performance standards or require us to carry out unscheduled interruptions of our production facilities. Any of these circumstances could harm our business, financial condition and results of operations. There can be no assurance that we will be able to replace any such third-party technology, intellectual property or technical support service for any adequate substitute technology, intellectual property or technical support in a timely manner to avoid any unscheduled interruption of our production processes or facilities, or in a cost-efficient manner.

Any downgrade in the ratings of Brazil, us or our debt securities would likely result in increased interest and other financial expenses related to our borrowings and debt securities and could reduce our liquidity.

Currently, Standard & Poor’s Ratings Group, a division of McGraw Hill, Inc., or Standard & Poor’s, and Fitch Ratings Ltd., or Fitch, maintain our ratings on a global and national basis. Moody’s Investors Service, Inc., or Moody’s, only maintains our ratings on a global basis. On a global basis, we maintain an investment grade rating at: (i) Standard & Poor’s of BBB- with a stable outlook and (ii) Fitch Ratings of BBB- with a stable outlook. At Moody’s, our rating is Ba1 with a stable outlook. Our ratings are higher than the Brazilian sovereign rating by all these three main rating agencies. On a national basis, we maintain investment grade rating at: (i) Standard & Poor's of brAAA with a stable outlook and (ii) Fitch Ratings of AAA with a stable outlook. Our credit rating is sensitive to any change in the Brazilian sovereign credit rating. The credit rating of the Brazilian federal government was downgraded as recently as January 2018 and has not been investment grade by all the main rating agencies for several years. Any decision by these agencies to downgrade our ratings or of our debt securities in the future would likely result in increased interest and other financial expenses relating to our borrowings and debt securities and the inclusion of financial covenants in the instruments governing new indebtedness, and could significantly reduce our ability to obtain such financing, on satisfactory terms or in amounts required by us, and our liquidity and would require us to post cash collateral pursuant to our obligations or to contract letters of credit to backstop guarantees provided by us in the context of the Mexican Complex.

We may be subject to attempts to acquire our control, which may lead to significant changes in management, the strategies that we are currently pursuing, or in our current corporate governance practices.

We may be subject to attempts to acquire our control. In the event there is a change in our corporate control, there might be significant changes in management, the strategies that we are currently pursuing, or in our current corporate governance practices.

For example, in June 2018, we were informed by Odebrecht S.A., or Odebrecht, about discussions that were being held between Odebrecht and LyondellBasell Industries N.V., or LyondellBasell, regarding a potential transaction involving the transfer to LyondellBasell of all of Odebrecht's interest in us. In June 2019, we were informed by Odebrecht that such discussions for a change-of-control transaction with LyondellBasell had been terminated. We cannot assure you that such negotiations will not be resumed, or that Odebrecht will not initiate discussions with other parties regarding a change-of-control transaction in the future.

Some of our shareholders may have the ability to determine the outcome of corporate actions or decisions, which could affect the holders of our class A preferred shares and the ADSs.

Odebrecht, directly or through its wholly-owned subsidiary OSP Investimentos S.A., or OSP Inv., owns 38.3% of our outstanding share capital, including 50.1% of our voting share capital and Petrobras holds 36.1% of our outstanding share capital, including 47.0% of our voting share capital. Nominees of Odebrecht constitute a majority of the members of our board of directors. Under a shareholders’ agreement to which Odebrecht and Petrobras are parties, which we refer to as the Braskem S.A. Shareholders’ Agreement, we may only undertake certain actions after Odebrecht and Petrobras have reached a consensus with respect to those actions. However, Odebrecht will have the sole power to approve our business plan, through the board of directors, as described under “Item 7. Major Shareholders and Related Party Transactions—Major Shareholders—Shareholders’ Agreements.” As a result, Odebrecht has the ability to determine the outcome of most corporate actions or decisions requiring the approval of our shareholders or our board of directors—in certain instances, with the consent of Petrobras—which could affect the holders of our class A preferred shares and of our American Depositary Shares, or ADSs.

Furthermore, on June 17, 2019, Odebrecht, together with certain of its controlling and controlled entities, filed a petition for judicial restructuring before the First Judicial Bankruptcy Court of the State of São Paulo, Brazil, seeking a voluntary judicial restructuring and emergency relief staying certain foreclosure actions by their creditors. We refer to this proceeding as the “Odebrecht Judicial Restructuring Proceedings”. The Odebrecht Judicial Restructuring Proceedings does not include us.

Although we are not currently a party to any pending bankruptcy or other judicial restructuring proceedings in Brazil or elsewhere, we are exposed to certain risks related to the Odebrecht Judicial Restructuring Proceedings, such as risks related to the change of our corporate control resulting from decisions taken and/or agreed under such proceedings and the consequences derived thereto, including but not limited to significant changes in our management and our strategy that may be undertaken by any new controlling shareholder(s) that may arise from the conclusion of these proceedings. We have no control over the Odebrecht Judicial Restructuring Proceedings, and no assurance can be given on the outcome of the Odebrecht Judicial Restructuring Proceedings or their effect on us.

We maintain trade accounts receivable and current and long-term payables with some of our affiliates and other related parties, including Petrobras, which is our domestic supplier of naphtha and other raw materials such as propylene, ethane, propane and refinery off gas, and Atvos (formerly Odebrecht Agroindustrial), which is one of our suppliers of ethanol. These trade accounts receivable and trade accounts payable balances result mainly from purchases and sales of goods, which are at prices and on terms equivalent to the average terms and prices of transactions that we enter into with third parties. These and other transactions between us and our affiliates could result in conflicting interests between us and our shareholders.

We may pursue strategic acquisitions or investments. The failure of an acquisition or investment to produce the anticipated results, or the inability to integrate an acquired company fully, could adversely affect our business.

We may from time to time acquire or invest in complementary companies or businesses. The success of an acquisition or investment will depend on our ability to make accurate assumptions regarding the valuation, operations, growth potential, integration and other factors related to that business. We cannot assure you that our acquisitions or investments will produce the results that we expect at the time we enter into or complete a given transaction. Furthermore, acquisitions may result in difficulties integrating the acquired companies, and may result in the diversion of our capital and our management’s attention from other business issues and opportunities. We may not be able to integrate successfully the operations that we acquire, including their personnel, financial systems, distribution or operating procedures. If we fail to integrate acquisitions successfully, our business could suffer. In addition, the expense of integrating any acquired business and their results of operations may adversely affect our operating results.

Certain acquisitions, partnerships and joint ventures we make may prevent us from competing for certain clients or in certain lines of business, and may lead to a loss of clients. We may spend time and money on projects that do not increase our revenue. To the extent, we pay the purchase price of any acquisition in cash, it would reduce our cash reserves, and to the extent the purchase price is paid with any of our shares, it could be dilutive to our shareholders. To the extent we pay the purchase price with proceeds from the incurrence of debt, it would increase our level of indebtedness and could negatively affect our liquidity and restrict our operations. Our competitors may be willing or able to pay more than us for acquisitions, which may cause us to lose certain acquisitions that we would otherwise desire to complete. We cannot ensure that any acquisition, partnership or joint venture we make will not have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.

We may face unforeseen challenges in the operation of our Mexico Complex, which could result in this business unit failing to provide expected benefits to us.

During the first half of 2016, we concluded the construction phase of an olefins complex, or the Mexico Complex, located in the Mexican state of Veracruz. For more information about this, which we refer to as the Mexico Complex, see “Item 5. Operating and Financial Review and Prospects—Capital Expenditures—Joint Venture—Mexico Complex.”

To develop our Mexico Complex, Braskem Idesa required significant capital expenditure. Our ability to achieve the strategic objectives of this business unit will depend largely on its successful operation. Factors that could affect the operation of this business unit include:

We cannot assure you that the Mexico Complex will provide the expected benefits to us, even after having completed a two full calendar year of operations. Any significant interruption could hinder or prevent the implementation of our business plan as originally conceived, and result in revenue and net income below what is expected. See also “—We depend on ethane supplied by Pemex TRI in Mexico”.

Adjustments in tariffs on imports that compete with our products could cause us to lower our prices.

We currently benefit from imports tariffs imposed by Mercosur countries members that allow us to charge prices for our polyolefin and vinyl products in the domestic market that include a factor based on the tariffs levied on comparable imports of those products. However, the Brazilian government has in the past used import and export tariffs to implement economic policies, resulting in varying tariff levels. For example, in September 2012, the Brazilian government increased import duties on 100 products related to various industries, including an increase in the import tariff on polyethylene. In October 2012, it increased the import tariff on polyethylene from 14% to 20%, and in October 2013, it reduced the import tariff on polyethylene to the previous level of 14%. Currently, the tariff remains at 14%. Adjustments of tariffs could lead to increased competition from imports and cause us to lower our domestic prices, which would likely result in lower net sales revenue and could negatively affect our overall financial performance. Additionally, the products we export to the United States and Europe are subject to tariffs in the amount of 6.5% in each jurisdiction, subject to certain preferences. These tariffs generally favor our products produced locally and any future adjustments to these tariff structures could negatively impact our sales in these jurisdictions. Future trade agreements entered into by Brazil, the Mercosur, the United States or the European Union could also lead to increased competition from imports and lower domestic prices. Recently, the Trump administration imposed 25% tariffs on a variety of imports from China and subsequently implemented tariffs on additional goods from China.

Changes in U.S. and global trade policies and other factors beyond our control may adversely impact our business, financial condition and results of operations.

The international environment in which we operate is affected from inter-country trade agreements and tariffs. As a result of recent revisions in the U.S. administrative policy, there are, and there may be additional changes to existing trade agreements, greater restrictions on free trade and significant increases in tariffs on goods imported into the United States, particularly those manufactured in China, Mexico and Canada. Future actions of the U.S. administration and that of foreign governments, including China, with respect to tariffs or international trade agreements and policies remains currently unclear.

The escalation of a trade war, tariffs, retaliatory tariffs or other trade restrictions on products and materials either exported by us to China or raw materials imported by us from China, or other countries, may significantly hinder our ability to provide our products to customers in China or other affected locations. Such developments may result in a decrease in demand for our products as well as delays in payments from our customers. Furthermore, other governmental action related to tariffs or international trade agreements, changes in U.S. social, political, regulatory and economic conditions, or in laws and policies governing foreign trade, manufacturing, development and investment in the territories and countries where our customers are located, could lead to a rebalancing of global export flows and an increase in global competition, which in turn could adversely affect our business, financial condition, results of operations and cash flows.

We may be affected by instability in the global economy and by financial turmoil.

Instability in the global markets and in the geopolitical environment in many parts of the world as well as other disruptions may continue to put pressure on global economic conditions. In the event global economic and market conditions, or economic conditions in key markets, remain uncertain or deteriorate, we may experience material impacts on our business, results of operations and financial condition.

We may not be able to specify in details technical specifications required by our customers’ or updated mechanisms to promptly attend regulatory requirements, and we could be subject to damages based on claims brought against us or our customers as a result of the failure of our products specification.

Our products specification may not meet certain technical or regulatory requirements, specifications or standards. In addition, our customers may impose stricter requiriments on our products or governments may enact stricter regulations for the distribution, sale or use of our products. Failure to meet such standards could materially adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations if we are unable to sell our products in one or more markets or to important customers in such markets.

As with all quality control systems, any failure or deterioration of our quality control systems could result in defects in our products, which in turn may subject us to contractual, regulatory, product liability and other claims, which could have a material adverse effect on our reputation, business, financial condition and results of operations.

Our business and operations are inherently subject to environmental, health and safety hazards. As a result, our business is also subject to stringent environmental and other regulations.

As a company operating in the petrochemical industry, our operations involve the generation, use, handling, storage, transportation, treatment, discharge and disposal of hazardous substances and waste into the environment. Notwithstanding our environmental, health and safety standards, policies and controls, our operations remain subject to incidents or accidents that could adversely affect our business or reputation. Our industry is generally subject to significant risks and hazards, including fire, explosions, toxic gas leaks, spilling of polluting substances or other hazardous materials, failure of operational structures and incidents involving mobile equipment, vehicles or machinery, associated or not with the manufacture of petrochemicals and the storage and transportation of feedstock and petrochemical products. These events may occur due to technical failures, human errors or natural events, among other factors, and could result in significant environmental and social impacts, damage to or destruction of production facilities and communities, personal injury, illness or death of employees, contractors or community members close to our operations, environmental damage, delays in production, and, in certain circumstances, liability in civil, labor, criminal and administrative lawsuits.

In addition, our production and logistics processes are subject to inherent safety risks, which may lead to death or disability of our employees or individuals participating in such processes. Such risks cannot be entirely eliminated or mitigated despite full compliance with all safety measures aplicable to us or required by laws or regulations. Despite all monitoring efforts, we may have a negative impact on our image and reputation, and on our business, financial condition and results of operations.

A sufficiently large accident at one of our plants or storage facilities could force us to suspend our operations temporarily and result in significant remediation costs and lost net sales revenue. Although we maintain insurance coverage for losses due to fire damage and for losses of income resulting from shutdowns due to fire, explosion or electrical damage, insurance proceeds from such insurance policies may not be available on a timely basis and may be insufficient to cover all losses, which could have a material adverse effect on our financial performance.

The operation of our salt mining activities in the state of Alagoas, Brazil, which is a raw material necessary for production of certain products in our Vinyls Unit, is also subject to similar risks and hazards, and any significant incident relating to our salt mining activities may also result in material adverse environmental and social impacts. For instance, in certain neighborhoods of the city of Maceió that are located near the geological area of our salt mine, there have been recent allegations that the ground gave way as a result of the activities carried out by us at this mine, which allegedly may have affected certain nearby private and public properties. On April 4, 2019, in response to a request of the Alagoas State Attorney’s Office (Ministério Público do Estado de Alagoas) and the State Public Defender’s Office (Defensoria Pública do Estado de Alagoas) seeking to freeze our assets in an amount of up to R$6.7 billion to secure funds allegedly required to ensure remediation and compensation for environmental, property and personal damages potentially resulting from this incident, a lower-court judge of the Alagoas state court ordered the freezing of R$100 million in our bank accounts. In addition, the Alagoas state court of appeals (Tribunal de Justiça do Estado de Alagoas) ordered the suspension of the distribution of dividends for the fiscal year 2018 that had been proposed in the amount of R$2.7 billion, or, alternatively, the freezing of assets in the same amount of the proposed dividend distribution. This decision was subsequently reversed by a decision of the Superior Court of Justice (Superior Tribunal de Justiça, or STJ), which authorized the distribution of dividends upon posting of a judicial bond in the same amount. The Alagoas State Attorney’s Office and the Alagoas State Public Defender’s Office amended their claim to exclude the request for indemnification for the alleged environmental damages and reduce the amount of assets to be frozen to R$3.7 billion, which according to their allegations would be equivalent to the alleged damages caused to the residents of the districts affected by the geological event. Immediately thereafter, on June 26, 2019, the presiding judge of the Alagoas state court of appeals (Tribunal de Justiça do Estado de Alagoas) issued a decision ordering an amount of R$3.7 billion to be frozen. This decision was also subsequently reversed by the Superior Court of Justice (STJ), which ordered the frozen amount of R$3.7 billion to be returned to our bank accounts after posting another judicial bond in an equivalent amount. On July 25, 2019, we were informed of another civil lawsuit filed against us by the Labor Prosecutor’s Office of the State of Alagoas, or MPT-AL, requesting injunctive relief to freeze the amount of R$2.5 billion to guarantee payment of any potential damages that workers affected by the geological event may suffer. In that lawsuit, MPT-AL further requested the payment of compensation to workers for pain and suffering. The trial court has not yet ruled on the plaintiff’s injunction relief request. On August 19, 2019, we became aware of the filing of another civil lawsuit by the Federal Prosecutor’s Office (Ministério Público Federal) against us and other parties, requesting the following injunctive reliefs: (i) the set-up of a fund of R$3.1 billion for the benefit of social and environmental programs and emergency measures to be carried out, and the maintenance in said fund of working capital in the amount of at least R$2.0 billion or, after a financial schedule is approved for such fund, an amount equivalent to 100% of the expenses projected for the subsequent 12 months; (ii) the posting of bonds in the amount of R$20.5 billion; (iii) prohibition on us to encumber or dispose of any of our fixed assets and to distribute profits, in the form of dividends, interest on shareholders’ equity or any other form; (iv) freezing of any profits not yet distributed; and (v) suspension of receipt of government financings from BNDES (a federal development bank) and government incentives, as well as acceleration of existing indebtedness with BNDES. We are taking all relevant measures to defend against these lawsuits. As of the date of this annual report, the plaintiff´s requests for injunctive relief have not yet been ruled upon.

On May 8, 2019, we became aware of the Report No. 1, prepared by the Mineral Resources Research Company (Companhia de Pesquisa de Recursos Minerais), or CPRM, an entity of the Brazilian Energy and Mining Ministry (Ministério de Minas e Energia), on the geological events that occurred in the city of Maceió. Such report indicated the occurrence of (i) destabilization of caverns resulting from sodium chloride, or salt, extraction, which created a dynamic situation that reactivated pre-existing geological structures and deformations in the districts of Pinheiro, Mutange and Bebedouro; and (ii) instability in the Pinheiro district, which was aggravated by the erosive effects caused by an increase in the infiltration of stormwater runoff in pre-existing fractures in extremely erodible soil and accelerated due to the lack of an effective stormwater runoff drainage network and of adequate basic sanitation, among other factors. In this context, due to the developments from the publication of Report No. 1 by CPRM, in accordance with applicable safety standards, on May 9, 2019, we suspended all salt extraction and, consequently, the operations of the chlor-alkali and dichloroethane plants located in the district of Pontal da Barra in Maceió, state of Alagoas and also reducing production in the Camaçari Petrochemical Complex in the state of Bahia, since they are integrated into the production chain. Given that, Braskem put in plance a non integrated business model which the Company will import (i) caustic soda to supply the Brazilian market using its logistics structure and terminals along the Brazilian coast, (ii) EDC to continue to operate its PVC plants in Alagoas and Bahia, and (iii) sea salt to supply the Chlorine Soda plant of Bahia.We have been continuously cooperating with relevant authorities and the local community. If authorities conclude that the activities at our salt mine caused such incidents, we may be held responsible for any adverse environmental and social impacts attributable to it.

Further, we may face difficulties in obtaining or maintaining operating licenses and may suffer damage to our reputation following the occurrence of any such event. Petrochemical producers are sometimes subject to unfavorable market perceptions as a result of the environmental impact of their business, which can have an adverse effect on their results of operations.

In addition, we and other petrochemical producers, are subject to stringent federal, state and local environmental laws and regulations concerning human health, the handling, storage, transportation, treatment, discharge and disposal of hazardous substances and waste into the environment. Our operations in Brazil, including those of our subsidiaries Cetrel and DAC, which are responsible for providing environmental services and water supply to the Camaçari Complex in the state of Bahia, for example, are subject to extensive federal, state and local laws, regulations, rules and ordinances relating to pollution, protection of the environment and the generation, storage, handling, transportation, treatment and disposal of hazardous substances and waste materials. The Brazilian government enacted the Environmental Crimes Law in 1998 that imposes criminal penalties on corporations and individuals that cause environmental damage. Corporations found to be guilty of polluting the environment may be fined up to R$50.0 million, have their operations suspended, be prohibited from contracting with the government, be required to repair damage that they causes and lose certain tax benefits and incentives. Executive officers, directors and other individuals may also be imprisoned for up to five years for environmental violations.

Our operations in the United States, Germany and Mexico are subject to extensive U.S., German, European and Mexican federal, state and local laws, regulations, rules and ordinances relating to pollution, protection of the environment and the generation, storage, handling, transportation, treatment, disposal and remediation of hazardous substances and waste materials. U.S. environmental laws and regulations may impose liability on us for the conduct of third parties, or for actions that complied with applicable requirements when taken, regardless of negligence or fault. Of particular significance to us are (1) regulatory programs to be established to implement air quality standards under the National Ambient Air Quality Standards for ozone and fine particles promulgated by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, or the EPA, and (2) various legislative and regulatory measures in the United States that are under review, discussion or implementation to address greenhouse gas emissions. In Mexico, we adhere to the comprehensive responsibility program promoted by the Mexican National Chemical Industry Association (Asociación Nacional de la Industria Química de Mexico – ANIQ), which is based on the responsible care standard adopted in the United States and Canada. We are also signatories of the responsible care program in the United States and Brazil.

Such existing stringent environmental and other regulations require significant capital expenditures. Our consolidated annual expenditures on environmental control were R$353.3 million in 2018, R$330.1 million in 2017 and R$427.4 million in 2016, including investments, waste and wastewater treatment, emissions management, environment licenses, environmental liabilities and other environmental expenditures. In addition, evolving regulatory requirements could require significant additional capital expenditures depending on the timing of the adoption and enforcement of specific standards imposing such requirements. In addition, changes in environmental regulations could inhibit or interrupt our operations, or require modifications to our facilities. Accordingly, environmental, health or safety regulatory matters may result in significant unanticipated costs or liabilities.

We may also, from time to time, be involved in certain claims, disputes or litigation proceedings concerning environmental risks and liabilities, health and safety hazards, among others. For more information, please see “Item 8. Financial Information––Legal Proceedings”.

We could be materially adversely affected by the impacts of the Global Settlement.

In the context of allegations of improper payments in connection with the so-called Operation Car Wash (Operação Lava Jato) in Brazil, we engaged independent expert firms to conduct an investigation into such allegations (the “Investigation”) and report their findings. We have cooperated with governmental authorities in several jurisdictions, including the U.S. Department of Justice, or the DoJ, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, or the SEC, Brazil’s Federal Prosecutor’s Office (Ministério Público Federal), or the MPF, and Switzerland’s Office of the Attorney General, or the OAG. On December 14, 2016, we entered into a leniency agreement with the MPF, or the Leniency Agreement, which was ratified by the competent Brazilian court on June 6, 2017. On December, 21, 2016, we filed a plea agreement in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York under which we agreed to plead guilty to a one-count criminal information charging us with conspiracy to violate the anti-bribery provisions of the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, or the FCPA. On the same date, we consented to the entry of a final judgment in a civil action brought by the SEC based on civil violations of the anti-bribery, books and records and internal accounting controls provisions of the FCPA. The competent federal courts in the United States approved the DoJ and SEC resolutions on January 26, 2017 and February 28, 2017, respectively. In addition, on December 21, 2016, the OAG closed its investigation of these matters. We refer to these actions as the Global Settlement. Under the Global Settlement, we agreed to pay to the governmental authorities in these jurisdictions an aggregate amount of US$957 million (equivalent to R$3.1 billion), based on the exchange rate of R$3.27 per U.S. Dollar, applicable at the time of the negotiation.

The MPF will distribute the majority of the amount it receives as restitution to third parties for damages caused by the misconduct. Pursuant to the Global Settlement, the MPF agreed to communicate with other public authorities or entities, as well as stated-owned companies and mixed-capital companies with which Braskem enters into discussions to address the facts under the Global Settlement and avoid making duplicate restitution payments. In this context, as announced to the market on July 10, 2018 and disclosed in a material fact on May 27, 2019, we have cooperated and engaged in negotiations with the Ministry of Transparency and Controllership (CGU) and the Office of the Attorney General (AGU) in Brazil, and our Board of Directors approved the signing of a leniency agreement with the CGU and the AGU (the "CGU/AGU Agreement").

The CGU/AGU Agreement, in the amount of approximately R$2.9 billion, to be adjusted by the SELIC rate, addresses the same facts that are the object of the Global Settlement executed in December 2016 with the Brazilian Federal Prosecution Office (MPF), the U.S. Department of Justice (DoJ), the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Swiss Office of the Attorney General ("Global Settlement"). Of this amount, approximately R$2.5 billion will be offset by the amount that Company already had undertaken to pay under the scope of the Global Settlement, resulting in an additional disbursement of approximately R$410 million.

As of the date of this annual report, we have paid R$2 billion of the total fine established in the Global Settlement in the following manner:

· US$94.9 million (R$296.6 million) to the DoJ on February 8, 2017;

· US$65.0 million (R$206.5 million) to the SEC on April 27, 2017;

· CHF30.2 million (R$104.3 million) to the OAG on June 27, 2017;

· R$736.4 million to the MPF on July 6, 2017;

· R$267.9 million to the MPF on January, 30 2018;

· CHF16.1 million (R$62.0 million) to the OAG on June 28, 2018;

· R$278.0 million to the MPF, on January 30, 2019; and

· CHF16.1 million (R$58 million) to the OAG on June 27, 2019

The outstanding amount of R$1.6 billion related to the Global Settelement and also the CGU/AGU Agreement will be paid in the following manner:

· CHF32.1 million to the OAG, related to two remaining annual installments of CHF16.1 million due on June 30 of each year as from 2020;

· R$1.1 billion to the MPF in four remaining annual installments due on January 30 of each year as from 2020. To guarantee payment of future installments, Braskem pledged collateral assets from its property, plant and equipment sufficient to cover one annual installment; and

· R$409.9 million in connection with the CGU/AGU Agreement in two annual installments due on January 30, 2024 and 2025.

The Global Settlement does not prevent Braskem from responding to any legitimate third party, which may seek indemnification against us from damages for the facts subject to the Global Settlement. As a result, we cannot assure you that the aggregate amount disbursed as a requirement pursuant to the agreement will be sufficient to cover indemnification claims of all of the victims. We may be required to make additional disbursements to cover such claims.

Other authorities with jurisdiction over us may seek to impose monetary sanctions or fines on, or to initiate investigative proceedings against, Braskem. As a result of entering into the Global Settlement, Braskem may be prevented from entering into certain agreements with government entities and may be subject to increased operating costs for being under the obligation to improve its governance and anti-corruption practices and procedures, including the cost of external monitorships.

Under the terms of the Global Settlement, we are required to cooperate with these governmental authorities and improve our governance and anti-corruption compliance practices. We will also be subject to external monitorship for a period of three years as from 2017, during which time the monitor will assess compliance with the Global Settlement, including the effectiveness of our internal controls, policies and procedures to reduce the risk of any anti-corruption violations. The monitorship period may be terminated early or extended for up to one year at the authorities’ discretion depending on our compliance with the Global Settlement. We have retained monitors pursuant to the provisions of the Global Settlement, and they have been approved by the relevant authorities. The monitors may recommend changes to our policies and procedures, which we must adopt unless they are unduly burdensome or otherwise inadvisable, in which case we may propose alternatives that the authorities may choose to accept. Operating under the oversight of the monitors will likely require the assumption of additional responsibilities by members of our management. The costs that we are likely to incur in connection with compliance with the Global Settlement, including the implementation of the recommended changes could be significant and could negatively impact us by requiring the efforts of our management team and diverting their attention from our ordinary business operations.

We are fully in compliance with our obligations under the Global Settlement.

Unfavorable outcomes in pending or future litigation may reduce our liquidity and negatively affect our financial performance and financial condition.

We are, and in the future may be, involved in numerous tax, civil and labor disputes, among others, involving monetary claims. If unfavorable decisions are rendered in one or more of these lawsuits, we could be required to pay substantial amounts. For certain of these lawsuits, we have not established any provision on our balance sheet or have established provisions only for a portion of the amounts in controversy, based on our judgments as to the risk of loss for these lawsuits.

In July 2015, two putative class action lawsuits were filed against us and certain of our then-current and former officers and directors, or the Defendants, in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, or the U.S. Court. In those lawsuits that were subsequently consolidated under the caption In re Braskem, S.A. Securities Litigation, No. 15-cv-5132, the Lead Plaintiff, Boilermaker-Blacksmith National Pension Trust, alleged that the Defendants made misrepresentations or omissions that inflated the price of the Company’s stock in violation of U.S. securities laws.

After the decision on the motion to dismiss filed by the Company, partially granting its arguments, the Company and the Lead Plaintiff signed the proposed settlement agreement ("Proposed Settlement"), which was ratified by the applicable Court, which issued a final decision ending all claims from all members of the class of Investors. We have made no admission of any wrongdoing or liability as part of the settlement.

Under the terms of the Proposed Settlement, Braskem paid US$10 million (approximately R$31.7 million) to resolve all claims arising out of or relating to the subject matter of the class action of a settlement class consisting of all persons who purchased or otherwise acquired a legal or beneficial ownership interest in Braskem American Depositary Receipts between July 15, 2010 and March 11, 2015, inclusive. The amount of the agreement was deposited by Braskem in the account designated by the judge (“Escrow Account”) on October 2, 2017.

On February 21, 2018, a hearing was held in which a decision was handed down for the final approval of the agreement regarding the entire class of investors and the dismissal of the case. Said decision became final and unappealable. The individual distribution of the amount of the agreement is the responsibility of the manager of the Escrow Account, as determined by the Court and in accordance with the ratified allocation plan. The Proposed Settlement was signed solely to avoid the risk, uncertainty, and expense of further litigation and does represent the admission of any wrongdoing or liability by Braskem.

In April 2019, the Alagoas State Attorney’s Office (Ministério Público do Estado de Alagoas) and the State Public Defender’s Office (Defensoria Pública do Estado de Alagoas) filed a lawsuit seeking to freeze our assets in an amount of up to R$6.7 billion to secure funds allegedly required to ensure remediation and compensation for environmental, property and personal damages potentially resulting from a geological incident related to our mining actitivies in the city of Maceió. A preliminary decision ordered the freezing of R$100 million in our banks accounts.

In addition, the Alagoas state court of appeals (Tribunal de Justiça do Estado de Alagoas) ordered the suspension of the distribution of dividends for the fiscal year 2018 that had been proposed in the amount of R$2.7 billion, or, alternatively, the freezing of assets in the same amount of the proposed dividend distribution.This decision was subsequently reversed by a decision of the Superior Court of Justice (Superior Tribunal de Justiça, or STJ), which authorized the distribution of dividends upon posting of a judicial bond in the same amount. The Alagoas State Attorney’s Office and the Alagoas State Public Defender’s Office amended their claim to exclude the request for indemnification for the alleged environmental damages and reduce the amount of assets to be frozen to R$3.7 billion, which according to their allegations would be equivalent to the actual damages caused to the residents of the districts affected by the geological event. On June 26, 2019, the presiding judge of the Alagoas state court of appeals (Tribunal de Justiça do Estado de Alagoas) issued a decision ordering an amount of R$3.7 billion to be frozen. This decision was also subsequently reversed by the Superior Court of Justice (STJ), which ordered the frozen amount of R$3.7 billion to be returned to our bank accounts after posting another judicial bond in an equivalent amount. On July 25, 2019, we were informed of another civil lawsuit filed against us by the Labor Prosecutor’s Office of the State of Alagoas, or MPT-AL, requesting injunctive relief to freeze the amount of R$2.5 billion to guarantee payment of any actual damages that workers affected by the geological event may suffer. In that lawsuit, MPT-AL further requested the payment of compensation to workers for pain and suffering. The trial court has not yet ruled on the plaintiff’s injunction relief request. We are taking all relevant measures to defend against these lawsuits.

On August 19, 2019, we became aware of the filing of another civil lawsuit by the Federal Prosecutor’s Office (Ministério Público Federal) against us and other parties, requesting the following injunctive reliefs: (i) the set-up of a fund of R$3.1 billion for the benefit of social and environmental programs and emergency measures to be carried out, and the maintenance in said fund of working capital in the amount of at least R$2.0 billion or, after a financial schedule is approved for such fund, an amount equivalent to 100% of the expenses projected for the subsequent 12 months; (ii) the posting of bonds in the amount of R$20.5 billion; (iii) prohibition on us to encumber or dispose of any of our fixed assets and to distribute profits, in the form of dividends, interest on shareholders’ equity or any other form; (iv) freezing of any profits not yet distributed; and (v) suspension of receipt of government financings and government incentives, as well as acceleration of existing indebtedness with BNDES (a federal development bank). As of the date of this annual report, the plaintiff´s requests for injunctive relief have not yet been ruled upon.

We are taking all relevant measures to defend against these lawsuits and we have been continuously cooperating with relevant authorities to identify the causes of the incident, with the support of independent experts.

For more information about our legal proceedings, see “Item 8. Financial Information—Legal Proceedings.”

Labor unrest may materially and adversely affect our operations.

Labor unrest in our plants and facilities may have a material adverse effect on our financial condition or results of operations. For example, in August 2010, the unionized employees at our Neal, West Virginia plant went on strike. During the strike, the plant operated under the supervision of management until May 2011, when Braskem America entered into a new collective bargaining agreement. Although we believe that we maintain good relations with our employees, future labor actions, including strikes, could have a material adverse effect on our financial performance.

Natural disasters, severe weather and climate conditions could have a material adverse effect on our overall business.

Some of our facilities are located in places that could be affected by natural disasters, such as floods, earthquakes, hurricanes, tornados and other natural disasters, which could disrupt our operations or the operations of our customers and could damage or destroy infrastructure necessary to transport our products as part of the supply chain. Such events could require maintenance shutdowns, delay shipments of existing inventory or result in costly repairs, replacements or other costs, all of which could have a material adverse effect on our financial performance.

While our energy risk policy dictates that we purchase energy in advance at fixed prices through long-term contracts, the majority of Brazilian power generation capacity is provided by hydroelectric generation facilities. If the amount of water available to energy producers becomes scarce due to drought or diversion for other uses, the cost of energy may increase. Such conditions could have a material adverse effect on our sales and margins.

We could be materially affected by violations of the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, the Brazilian Anti-Corruption Law and similar anti-corruption laws.

We, our subsidiaries and our joint venture partners are subject to a number of anti-corruption laws, including Law No. 12,846/2013, or the Brazilian Anti-Corruption Law, which entered into effect on January 28, 2014, the FCPA and various other anti-corruption and anti-bribery laws of other jurisdictions.

The FCPA, the Brazilian Anti-Corruption Law and similar anti-bribery laws in other jurisdictions generally prohibit companies and their intermediaries from making improper payments to government officials or other persons for the purpose of obtaining or retaining business. Violations of these laws may result in criminal or civil sanctions, inability to do business with existing or future business partners, injunctions against future conduct, profit disgorgements, disqualifications from directly or indirectly engaging in certain types of businesses, the loss of business permits or other restrictions which could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations or liquidity. For instance, see “—We could be materially adversely affected by the impacts of the Global Settlement” for the impact on us of allegations of improper payments in connection with the Operation Car Wash.

We are exposed to behaviors of our employees and non-employees that may be incompatible with our ethics and compliance standards, and failure to timely prevent, detect or remedy any such behavior and/or process vulnerabilities may have a material adverse effect on our results of operations and financial condition.

Our business, including our relationships with third parties, is guided by ethical principles. We have adopted a Code of Conduct, a Global Compliance System Policy, an Anti-Corruption Policy, and several other internal policies designed to guide our management, employees and counterparties and reinforce our principles and rules for ethical behavior and professional conduct. We maintain an independent whistleblower channel (denominated “Ethics Line”) managed by a third party available for employees and non-employees (including third parties). Every whistleblower complaint is investigated and submitted for evaluation to our Ethics Committee.

We are subject to the risk that our employees, counterparties or any person doing business with us may engage in fraudulent activity, corruption or bribery, circumvent or override our internal controls and procedures or misappropriate or manipulate our assets for their personal or business advantage. In the event that we believe or have reason to believe that our employees or agents have or may have violated applicable anti-corruption laws, including the FCPA, we may be required to investigate or have outside counsel investigate the relevant facts and circumstances, which can be expensive and require significant time and attention from senior management. We have in place a robust Compliance and Anti-Corruption Program being implemented through every area of our company, including several processes for identifying, monitoring and mitigating these risks, but such program may not be completely effective.

Our management is responsible for establishing and maintaining adequate internal control over financial reporting as defined in Rules 13a-15(f) and 15d-15(f) under the Securities and Exchange Act of 1934. During our assessment of internal control over financial reporting as of December 31, 2017, we identified certain material weaknesses.

A material weakness is defined as a deficiency, or combination of deficiencies, in internal control over financial reporting, such that there is a reasonable possibility that a material misstatement of our annual or interim consolidated financial statements will not be prevented or detected on a timely basis.

The material weaknesses that we identified relate to: (i) Control environment – Tone at the top; (ii) Appointment of Board members; (iii) Anti-corruption compliance program and controls; (iv) Controls related to long-term debt presentation and disclosure; (v) Controls over Braskem America; (vi) Controls over the purchase of raw materials; (vii) Controls over purchases and payments of legal services; (viii) Controls over legal contingencies; (ix) Controls over the evaluation of significant unusual transactions; and (x) Controls over the preparation and review of the financial statements.

We have adopted the several measures to resolve these material weaknesses, including implementation and improvement of our processes and controls. See “Item 15. Controls and Procedures”. In addition, we have taken a series of actions focused on remediation of processes and controls, which allowed us to resolve certain material weaknesses described in our 2016 annual report on Form 20-F. See “Item 15. Controls and Procedures.”

As we were required to conduct additional procedures and analyses with respect to our internal processes and controls for the year ended December 31, 2017, we were unable to timely conclude our audited financial statements for such year and, therefore, were unable to timely file our annual report on Form 20-F for the year ended December 31, 2017. We obtained extensions from the SEC to file our annual report on Form 20-F for the year ended December 31, 2017 until May 16, 2019. Since we were not able to file our Form 20-F until the date granted by SEC and no further extensions have been granted pursuant to Section 802.01E of the NYSE Listed Company Manual, on May 13, 2019, we were notified by the NYSE it had suspended the trading of our ADSs and had initiated delisting procedures. We have appealed the decision.

In the future, we may be required to conduct additional procedures and analyses with respect to our internal processes and controls that may lead to a delay in the conclusion of our audited financial statements and, as a result, prevent us from filing future annual reports in a timely manner. Any failure to timely file our annual reports in the future may have an adverse effect on our business.

If we are unable to comply with the restrictions and covenants in the agreements governing our indebtedness, there could be a default under the terms of these agreements, which could result in an acceleration of payment of funds that we have borrowed and could affect our ability to make principal and interest payments on our debt obligations.

Any default under the agreements governing our indebtedness that is not cured or waived by the required lenders could result in the holders of any such indebtedness accelerating the payment of amounts outstanding, which could make us unable to pay principal and interest on those and other debt obligations. If we are unable to generate sufficient cash flow and are otherwise unable to obtain funds necessary to meet required payments of principal and interest on our indebtedness, or if we otherwise fail to comply with the various covenants in the agreements governing our indebtedness, we could be in default under the terms of such agreements. In the event of such default:

Although our Mexico Complex is fully operational and Braskem Idesa has satisfied and continues to satisfy its debt service requirements and all other payment obligations under its US$3,194 million senior secured syndicated facility on a timely basis, certain defaults have occurred and are continuing thereunder. These defaults give the creditors thereunder the right to vote to accelerate their debt under this facility and exercise their remedies in respect of the collateral for the facility, including the Mexico Complex and the outstanding shares of Braskem Idesa. Braskem Idesa has submitted requests for waiver of these defaults to and is currently negotiating such waiver with the intercreditor agent for this facility. However, there can be no assurance that the intercreditor agent and the lenders will agree to extend such waiver, or if they agree to extend such waiver, whether the waiver will include additional obligations with which Braskem Idesa would be required to comply.

In addition, certain of our contractual arrangements contain change of control provisions that provide our counterparties with a termination right or the ability to accelerate the maturity of our indebtedness with them in the event of a change of our control without their consent. These provisions would be triggered in the event Odebrecht ceases to own, directly or indirectly, capital stock representing more than 50% of the voting power of our capital stock outstanding. As a result, if Odebrecht ceases to control, or in some cases, own a certain percentage of our common shares, whether as a result of the Odebrecht Judicial Restructuring Proceedings, an alternative sale, foreclosure by creditors, reorganization, restructuring or other similar circumstance in connection with the Odebrecht Judicial Restructuring Proceedings or otherwise, if appropriate consents or waivers are not obtained, such counterparties could terminate such contracts or accelerate the maturity of such contractual arrangements. The termination of any of our contractual arrangements or the acceleration of the maturity of any of our financing arrangements could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations and cash flows, and ultimately result in the cross-accelation of all of our indebtedness.

Furthermore, pursuant to the indentures governing our 7.00% Notes due 2020, 5.75% Notes due 2021, 5.375% Notes due 2022, 3.50% Notes due 2023, 6.45% Notes due 2024, 4.50% Notes due 2028, 7.125% Notes due 2041 and 7.375% Perpetual Bonds, a change of control with a ratings decline would require a repurchase of any such outstanding notes, plus accrued and unpaid interest, if any, to the repurchase date. See “Item 5. Operating and Financial Review and Prospects—Recent Developments—Odebrecht Judicial Restructuring Proceedings” and other disclosures in this annual report for additional information relating to the Odebrecht Judicial Restructuring Proceedings.

We may in the future need to obtain waivers under our other indebtedness to avoid being in default. If we breach any covenants under any of our debt instruments and seek a waiver, we may not be able to obtain a waiver from the required lenders. If this occurs, we would be in default under such agreements, the lenders could exercise their rights or remedies, as described above, and we could be forced into bankruptcy or liquidation.

Unauthorized disclosure, or loss of intellectual property, trade secrets, other sensitive business or personal information, or disruption in information technology by cyber-attacks, as well as our failure to comply with existing and future laws and regulations relating to data privacy and data security can subject us to significant penalties or liability and can adversely impact our operations, reputation and financial results.

We collect, store, process, and use certain confidential information and other user data in connection with our business operations. We must ensure that any processing, collection, use, storage, dissemination, transfer and disposal of data for which we are responsible complies with relevant data protection and privacy laws. The protection of our customer, employee and company data is critical to us. We rely on commercially available systems, software, tools and monitoring to provide secure processing, transmission and storage of confidential information, such as customer, employee, company and other personal information.

Data protection and privacy laws are developing to take into account the changes in cultural and consumer attitudes towards the protection of personal data. For example, on August 14, 2018, Brazil enacted Law No. 13,709/2018 (Lei Geral de Proteção de Dados, or the LGPD), a comprehensive data protection law establishing general principles and obligations that apply across multiple economic sectors and contractual relationships. The LGPD establishes detailed rules for the collection, use, processing and storage of personal data and will affect all economic sectors, including the relationship between customers and suppliers of goods and services, employers and employees, and other relationships in which personal data is collected, whether in a digital or physical manner. The LGPD is expected to come into effect in August 2020. By then, all entities subject to it, including us, will be required to adapt their data processing activities to the new rules. Any additional privacy laws or regulations enacted or approved in Brazil or in other jurisdictions in which we operate could seriously harm our business, financial condition or results of operations. On May 25, 2018, the Regulation No. 2016/279 of the European Parliament and of the Council of April 27, 2016 on the protection of personal data (the General Data Protection Regulation, or the GDPR) became directly applicable in all member states of the European Union. The GDPR has introduced new obligations relating to data privacy, control and retention, including, among others: (i) accountability and transparency requirements; (ii) enhanced data consent requirements; (iii) obligations to consider data privacy as any new products or services are developed and limit the amount of information collected, processed, stored and its accessibility; (iv) constraints on using data to profile data subjects; (v) providing data subjects with personal data in a useable format upon request and erasing personal data in certain circumstances; and (vi) reporting breaches without undue delay.

As we seek to expand our business and operations, we expect that we will be increasingly subject to laws and regulations relating to the collection, use, retention, security, and transfer of information, including the personally identifiable information of our employees and customers. These laws and regulations may be interpreted and applied differently over time and from jurisdiction to jurisdiction, and it is possible that they will be interpreted and applied in ways that will materially and adversely affect our business. Any failure, real or perceived, by us to comply with any regulatory requirements or orders or other local, state, federal, or international privacy or consumer protection-related laws and regulations could cause our customers to reduce their use of our products and services and could materially and adversely affect our business. The implementation of the GDPR and the LGPD, and of any other existing or future laws and regulations relating to data privacy is expected to require revisions of our procedures and policies and significant implementation resources. There can be no guarantee that we will have sufficient financial resources to comply with any new regulations or successfully compete in the context of a shifting regulatory environment. Further, there is a risk that the measures may not be implemented correctly or that there may be non-compliance with the new procedures. If there are breaches of the GDPR or the LGPD obligations, or of other data privacy laws and regulations, as the case may be, we could face significant administrative and monetary sanctions as well as reputational damage, which could have a material adverse effect on our operations, financial condition and prospects.

In addition, despite the security measures that we have in place, our facilities and systems, and those of our third-party service providers, may be vulnerable to security breaches, cyber-attacks, acts of vandalism, computer viruses, misplaced or lost data, programming or human errors, or other similar events. Any security incident, or any perceived failure involving the misappropriation, loss or other unauthorized disclosure of confidential information, as well as any failure or perceived failure to comply with laws, policies, legal obligations or industry standards regarding data privacy and protection, whether by us or our vendors, could damage our reputation, expose us to litigation risk and liability, subject us to negative publicity, disrupt our operations and harm our business.

For instance, in the second half of 2018, one of our information technology service providers experienced a cybersecurity incident Brazil, in which specified credentials for access to certain cloud storage accounts maintained by such service provider were disclosed to unauthorized third parties online. We were not affected by this security incident because we were not among the customers of such service provider whose credentials were disclosed. However, we cannot assure you that our security measures, or those put in place by our service providers, will be sufficient to prevent future security breaches, which may directly or indirectly affect us, or that our failure to prevent them will not have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations or financial condition.

Cyber-attacks or security breaches could compromise confidential, business and other critical information, cause a disruption in our operations or harm our reputation, as our operations are heavily dependent on information technology and telecommunication systems and services. Information assets, including intellectual property, trade secrets, personal data and other business-sensitive critical information are an attractive asset to cyber criminals, cyberterrorism or other external agents. While we have a comprehensive cyber security program in place, which is continuously reviewed, maintained and upgraded, a significant cyber-attack, a human error, including from our employees and partners, or obsolescence of technology could result in the loss of critical business information and/or negatively impact our operations, which could have a negative impact on our financial results.

Risks Relating to Brazil

Brazilian political, economic and business conditions, and the Brazilian government’s economic and other policies, may negatively affect demand for our products as well as our net sales revenue and overall financial performance.

The Brazilian economy has been characterized by frequent and occasionally extensive intervention by the Brazilian government and unstable economic cycles. The Brazilian government has often changed monetary, taxation, credit, tariff and other policies to influence the course of Brazil’s economy. The Brazilian government’s actions to control inflation and implement other policies have at times involved wage and price controls, blocking access to bank accounts, imposing capital controls and limiting imports into Brazil.

Our results of operations and financial condition may be adversely affected by factors such as:

· fluctuations in exchange rates;

· exchange control policies;

· interest rates;

· inflation;

· tax policies;

· expansion or contraction of the Brazilian economy, as measured by rates of growth in GDP;

· liquidity of domestic capital and lending markets; and

· other political, diplomatic, social, economic and business developments in or affecting Brazil.

Brazilian markets have been experiencing heightened volatility due to the uncertainties derived from the ongoing corruption investigations by the Federal Prosecutor’s Office under Operations Car Wash, Zelotes, Greenfield, Efficiency and others, and their impact on the Brazilian economy and political environment. Certain current and former members of the Brazilian government and of the legislative branch, as well as former senior officers of the state-owned oil company and our shareholder Petrobras are being prosecuted for political corruption. These government officials and former senior officers allegedly accepted bribes by means of kickbacks on contracts granted by Petrobras to several infrastructure, oil and gas and construction companies, including Odebrecht, our controlling shareholder. We cannot currently predict how the Operation Car Wash investigation, related investigations and any future decisions and actions by authorities or developments in relation to our shareholders, may impact us. The profits of these kickbacks allegedly financed the political campaigns of political parties of federal, state and city governments that were unaccounted for or not publicly disclosed, as well as served to personally enrich the recipients of the bribery scheme. As a result of the ongoing Operation Car Wash investigation, a number of current and former senior politicians, including congressman and officers of the major state-owned companies in Brazil resigned or have been arrested. Senior elected officials and other public officials in Brazil are being investigated for allegations of unethical and illegal conduct identified during the Operation Car Wash investigation.

The potential outcome of these investigations is uncertain, but they have adversely affected and we expect that they will continue to adversely affect the Brazilian markets and trading prices of securities issued by Brazilian issuers. We cannot predict whether the allegations will lead to further political and economic instability or whether new allegations against government officials or other companies in Brazil will arise in the future. In addition, we can neither predict the outcome of any such allegations nor their effect on the Brazilian economy. The development of those unethical conduct cases could have a material adverse effect.

In addition, Brazilian politics have been characterized by considerable instability in recent years. The conviction of Former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and potential ongoing judicial appeals may further increase political and economic instability. In addition, following a divisive presidential race, former Congressman Jair Bolsonaro became Brazil’s president on January 1, 2019. It is unclear if and for how long the political divisions in Brazil that arose prior to the elections will continue under Mr. Bolsonaro’s presidency and the effects that any such divisions will have on Mr. Bolsonaro’s ability to govern Brazil and implement reforms. Any continuation of such divisions could result in congressional deadlock, political unrest and massive demonstrations and/or strikes that could materially adversely affect our operations. Uncertainties in relation to the implementation by the new government of changes relating to monetary, tax and pension funds policies as well as to the relevant legislation may contribute to economic instability. These uncertainties and measures adopted by the new administration may increase market volatility of Brazilian securities issued abroad.

Changes in industrial policy and related actions undertaken by the Brazilian government may negatively affect demand for our products as well as our net sales revenue and overall financial performance.

We currently benefit from certain industrial policies and related actions undertaken by the Brazilian government intended to strengthen the domestic economy and certain local industries. Some of these policies and actions have recently included reductions in payroll taxes for plastic manufacturers, a program to improve the competitiveness of Brazilian producers in the export markets by refunding the federal taxes levied on their export sale, intervention of the federal government to reduce incentives to imports at local ports, increases in import duties on certain products, including polyethylene, and the reduction in the rates of the Social Integration Program (Programa de Integração Social), or PIS, a federal value-added tax, and Contribution for Social Security Financing (Contribuição para Financiamento da Seguridade Social), or COFINS, taxes on feedstock purchases by first- and second-generation petrochemical producers.

These taxes on feedstock purchases were set at a rate of 5.6% for naphtha and 9.25% for other feedstocks prior to June 2013. After September 2013 naphtha and also other feedstocks taxes rates were lowered to 1% in 2015, increased to 3% in 2016, 5% in 2017 and further increased to 5.6% in 2018. On May 30, 2018, the Brazilian government issued Provisional Measure No. 836/18, which revoked the tax rebates for social contribution taxes, PIS and COFINS, beginning on September 1, 2018. Further, in early October, 2018, the petrochemical industry special regime (REIQ) was not passed into law, which kept the PIS/COFINS taxes levied on the acquisition of domestic and imported feedstocks unchanged at 5.6%.

We cannot predict or control which policies will be renewed or discontinued and whether future changes to Brazilian industrial policy will be proposed and enacted in the future. If industrial policies that benefit us expire, or policies detrimental to us are implemented, our business, results of operations and financial condition may be adversely affected.

Fluctuations in the real/U.S. dollar exchange rate could increase inflation in Brazil, raise the cost of servicing our foreign currency-denominated debt and negatively affect our overall financial performance.

The exchange rate between the real and the U.S. dollar and the relative rates of depreciation and appreciation of the real have affected our results of operations and may continue to do so.

The Brazilian currency has been devalued on several occasions. Throughout the last several decades, the Brazilian government has implemented various economic plans and various exchange rate policies, including sudden devaluations, periodic mini-devaluations (during which the frequency of adjustments has ranged from daily to monthly), exchange controls, dual exchange rate markets and a floating exchange rate system. From time to time, there have been significant fluctuations in the exchange rate between the Brazilian currency and the U.S. dollar and other currencies. On average, the real depreciated by 13.4% against the U.S. dollar during 2014, by 47.0% during 2015, appreciated by 16.5% during 2016, by 8.5% during 2017 and depreciated by 14.5% during 2018.

Depreciation of the real relative to the U.S. dollar also could result in inflationary pressures in Brazil by generally increasing the price of imported products and services. On the other hand, the appreciation of the real against the U.S. dollar may lead to a deterioration of the country’s current account and the balance of payments and may dampen export-driven growth.

We had total foreign currency-denominated debt obligations, all of which were denominated in U.S. dollars, in an aggregate amount of R$22,141.6 million (US$6,693.3 million) as of December 31, 2017, representing 94.8% of our consolidated indebtedness, net of transaction costs. This indebtedness does not include an aggregate amount of R$9,691.5 million (US$2,929.7 million) outstanding as of December 31, 2017 in connection with the Braskem Idesa Financing (as defined elsewhere in this annual report),” As of December 31, 2017, we had R$1,607.9 million (US$486.1 million) in foreign currency-denominated cash and cash equivalents, not including the aggregate amount of R$294.7 million (US$89.1 million) of Braskem Idesa’s cash and cash equivalents.

A significant depreciation of the real in relation to the U.S. dollar or other currencies could increase our financial expenses as a result of foreign exchange losses that we must record and could reduce our ability to meet debt service requirements of our foreign currency-denominated obligations. To enable us to more efficiently manage the effects of exchange rate fluctuations on our results, in 2013 we decided to designate part of our U.S. dollar-denominated liabilities as a hedge for our future exports.

The prices of naphtha, our most important raw material, and of some of our other raw materials, are denominated in or linked to the U.S. dollar. Naphtha accounted, directly and indirectly, for 40.0% of our consolidated cost of products sold in 2017. When the real depreciates against the U.S. dollar, the cost in reais of our U.S. dollar-denominated and U.S. dollar-linked raw materials increases, and our operating income in reais may decrease to the extent that we are unable to pass on these cost increases to our customers.

The Brazilian government’s actions to combat inflation may contribute significantly to economic uncertainty in Brazil and reduce demand for our products.

Historically, Brazil has experienced high rates of inflation. Inflation, as well as government efforts to combat inflation, had significant negative effects on the Brazilian economy, particularly prior to 1995. The inflation rate, as measured by the General Price Index—Internal Availability (Índice Geral de Preços—Disponibilidade Interna), or the IGP-DI, reached 2,708% in 1993. Although inflation rates have been substantially lower since 1995 than in previous periods, inflationary pressures persist. Inflation rates, as measured by the IGP-DI, were 3.8% in 2014, 10.7% in 2015, 7.2% in 2016, negative 0.4% in 2017 and 7.1% in 2018. The Brazilian government’s measures to control inflation have often included maintaining a tight monetary policy with high interest rates, thereby restricting availability of credit and reducing economic growth. Inflation, actions to combat inflation and public speculation about possible additional actions also may contribute to economic uncertainty in Brazil and to heightened volatility in the Brazilian securities markets.

Brazil may experience high levels of inflation. Increasing prices for petroleum, the depreciation of the real and future governmental measures seeking to maintain the value of the real in relation to the U.S. dollar may trigger increases in inflation in Brazil. Periods of higher inflation may slow the rate of growth of the Brazilian economy, which would lead to reduced demand for our products in Brazil and decreased net sales revenue. Inflation is also likely to increase some of our costs and expenses, which we may not be able to pass on to our customers and, as a result, may reduce our profit margins and net income. In addition, high inflation generally leads to higher domestic interest rates, and, as a result, the costs of servicing our real-denominated debt may increase, causing our net income to be reduced. Inflation and its effect on domestic interest rates can, in addition, lead to reduced liquidity in the domestic capital and lending markets, which could adversely affect our ability to refinance our indebtedness in those markets. Any decline in our net sales revenue or net income and any deterioration in our financial condition would also likely lead to a decline in the market price of our securities, including class A preferred shares and the ADSs.

Fluctuations or changes in, or the replacement of, interest rates could raise the cost of servicing our debt or reduce our financial revenue, negatively affecting our overall financial performance.

Our financial expenses are affected by changes in the interest rates that apply to our floating rate debt. As of December 31, 2017, we had, among other debt obligations:

The TLP includes an inflation factor and is determined quarterly by the Central Bank. In particular, the TLP, the CDI and the SELIC rates have fluctuated significantly in the past in response to the expansion or contraction of the Brazilian economy, inflation, Brazilian government policies and other factors. See “Item 11. Quantitative and Qualitative Disclosures about Market Risk.” A significant increase in any of these interest rates could adversely affect our financial expenses and negatively affect our overall financial performance.

In addition, as a result of concerns about the accuracy of the calculation of LIBOR, a number of British Bankers’ Association, or BBA, member banks entered into settlements with certain regulators and law enforcement agencies with respect to the alleged manipulation or under-reporting of LIBOR. Actions by the BBA, regulators or law enforcement agencies, as a result of these or future events, may result in changes to the manner in which LIBOR is determined. Potential changes, or uncertainty related to such potential changes, may adversely affect the market for LIBOR-based indebtedness and/or investments. In addition, changes or reforms to the determination or supervision of LIBOR may result in a sudden or prolonged increase or decrease in reported LIBOR, which could have an adverse impact on the market for LIBOR-based indebtedness and/or investments.

In July 2017, the head of the United Kingdom Financial Conduct Authority announced the desire to phase out the use of LIBOR by the end of 2021. At this time, it is not possible to predict the effect of any such changes, any establishment of alternative reference rates or any other reforms to LIBOR that may be enacted in the United Kingdom or elsewhere. The elimination of LIBOR or any other changes or reforms to the determination or supervision of LIBOR could have a material adverse effect on our financial expenses and/or financial revenue and materially adversely affect our overall financial performance.

Brazilian government exchange control policies could increase the cost of servicing our foreign currency-denominated debt, adversely affect our ability to make payments under our foreign currency-denominated debt obligations and impair our liquidity.

The purchase and sale of foreign currency in Brazil is subject to governmental control. The current laws and regulations governing the Brazilian foreign exchange system allow the purchase and sale of foreign currency and the international transfer of reais by any person or legal entity, regardless of the amount, subject to certain regulatory procedures. Many factors could cause the Brazilian government to institute more restrictive exchange control policies, including the extent of Brazil’s foreign currency reserves, the availability of sufficient foreign exchange on the date a payment is due, the size of Brazil’s debt service burden relative to the economy as a whole, Brazil’s policy towards the IMF and political constraints to which Brazil may be subject. A more restrictive policy could increase the cost of servicing, and thereby reduce our ability to pay, our foreign currency-denominated debt obligations and other liabilities.

Our foreign-currency debt denominated in U.S. dollars represented an aggregate of 94.8% of our indebtedness on a consolidated basis as of December 31, 2017, including transaction costs. This indebtedness does not include the aggregate amount of R$9,691.5 million (US$2,929.7 million) outstanding as of December 31, 2017 in connection with the Braskem Idesa Financing. If we fail to make payments under any of these obligations, we will be in default under those obligations, which could reduce our liquidity as well as the market price of our securities, including our class A preferred shares and ADSs.

Changes in tax laws may result in increases in certain direct and indirect taxes, which could reduce our gross margin and negatively affect our overall financial performance.

The Brazilian government implements from time to time changes to tax regimes that may increase our´s and our customers’ tax burdens. These changes include modifications in the rate of assessments and, on occasion, enactment of temporary taxes, the proceeds of which are earmarked for designated governmental purposes. We cannot predict the changes to Brazilian tax law that may be proposed and enacted in the future. However, future changes in Brazilian tax law may result in increases in our overall tax burden, which could reduce our gross margin and negatively affect our overall financial performance.

Risks Relating to Mexico

Political conditions in Mexico could materially and adversely affect the Mexican economic policy and, consequently, our operations.

Our operations are subject to political and economic uncertainties and other political risks, including tension and confrontations among political parties. Some of these risks may be higher in the developing countries in which we conduct our activities, including Mexico. Mexico’s most recent presidential election was held in July 2018. Presidential reelection is not permitted in Mexico. The President-elect, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, took office on December 1, 2018, and his political party, the Movimiento Regeneración Nacional, has a majority in both houses of Mexico’s congress. We cannot predict what changes, if any, will result from the measures adopted by the new administration, including with respect to the energy and petrochemicals sectors. Political events in Mexico could adversely affect oil and gas production, economic conditions and our industry and, as a consequence, our results of operations and financial position.

Political and economic conditions and government policies in Mexico and elsewhere may have a material impact on our operations.

Deterioration in Mexico’s economic condition, social instability, political unrest or other adverse social developments in Mexico could adversely affect our business and financial condition. These events could also lead to increased volatility in the financial markets, thereby affecting our ability to maintain financial liquidity and service our debt. Additionally, spending cuts related to Pemex or other government expenditures, or lack of investments in natural gas and ethane recovery, could adversely affect Pemex, Pemex’s ability to produce and recover ethane, the Mexican economy and, consequently, our business, financial condition, operating results and prospects.

In the past, Mexico has experienced several periods of slow or negative economic growth, high inflation, high interest rates, currency devaluation and other economic problems. These problems may worsen or reemerge, as applicable, in the future and could adversely affect our business and ability to service our debt. A worsening of international financial or economic conditions, such as a slowdown in growth or recessionary conditions in Mexico’s trading partners, including the United States, or the emergence of a new financial crisis, could have adverse effects on the Mexican economy, our financial condition and our ability to service our debt.

Furthermore, our long-term supply agreement to purchase ethane from Pemex TRI, a state-owned Mexican company, could be manipulated, terminated or jeopardized by them as a result of political pressure to not comply with the agreement, to change the terms of the agreement, expropriation measures, or change in laws regulations by the Mexican government. Any non-compliance, modification, termination or interruption of this supply agreement could have a material adverse effect on the results of our operations or our financial condition.

Developments in other countries could adversely affect the Mexican economy, our financial performance and the price of our shares.

The Mexican economy and the market value of Mexican companies may be affected to varying degrees by global economic and market conditions, and the economic and market conditions in other emerging market countries and major trading partners, in particular the United States. In recent years, economic conditions in Mexico have become increasingly correlated with economic conditions in the United States as a result of the North American Free Trade Agreement, or NAFTA, increased economic activity between the two countries, and the remittance of funds from Mexican immigrants working in the United States to Mexican residents. Therefore, adverse economic conditions in the United States, the termination of, or modifications to, NAFTA or its successor agreement, USMCA, or other related events, including global trade disputes and instability, could have a significant adverse effect on the Mexican economy. We cannot assure you that events in other emerging market countries, in the United States or elsewhere will not adversely affect our financial performance.

Mexico has experienced a period of increasing criminal activity, which could affect our operations.

In recent years, Mexico has experienced a period of increasing criminal activity, primarily due to the activities of drug cartels and related criminal organizations. In addition, the development of the illicit market in fuels in Mexico has led to increases in theft and illegal trade in the fuels that Pemex TRI, our principal supplier in Mexico, produces. In response, the Mexican government has implemented various security measures and strengthened its military and police forces aimed at decreasing incidents of theft and other criminal activity directed at petrochemical facilities and petrochemical products. Despite these efforts, criminal activity continues to exist in Mexico, some of which may target our facilities and products, including thefts of our products while transported by truck or rail, or those of Pemex TRI and other suppliers. These activities, their possible escalation and the violence associated with them may have a negative impact on our financial condition and results of operations.

Risks Relating to Our Equity and Debt Securities

The totality of the shares issued by Braskem and owned by OSP Investimentos S.A. were given as collateral in financing agreements entered into by the Odebrecht Group.

Pursuant to a shares fiduciary assignment agreement (alienação fiduciária em garantia) entered into by the Odebrecht Group on November 27, 2013, as amended on May 13, 2016, July 19, 2016, April 24, 2017 and May 23, 2018, all shares issued by Braskem and held by OSP Investimentos S.A. have been given as collateral in connection with certain financing agreements entered into by Odebrecht S.A. and certain of its subsidiaries. In the event that Odebrecht Group defaults on such financing agreements, or if such financing agreements are accelerated and, as a result, such collateral is seized by a creditor (assuming that Petróleo Brasileiro S.A. – Petrobrás does not exercise its preemptive rights to acquire such shares) we may be subject to a change of control following statutory and procedural formalities required pursuant to our shareholders’s agreement. A change of control under these circumstances may adversely affect us.

A foreclosure on or sale of our shares held by OSP Investimentos S.A. whether within or outside the Odebrecht Judicial Restructuring Proceedings may result in a change of control. As we do not have the ability to consent to or otherwise influence or control the Odebrecht Judicial Restructuring Proceedings or otherwise the acquirer of the shares from any such foreclosure, we may have a change in our corporate control in the foreseeable future.

Shareholders of our class A preferred shares or the ADSs may not receive any dividends or interest on shareholders’ equity.

As permitted by the Brazilian Corporation Law, our by-laws specify that 25% of our adjusted net profit for each fiscal year must be distributed to shareholders as mandatory dividends, or the Mandatory Distribution of Dividends. Under our by-laws, our preferred shareholders are entitled to a minimum annual non-cumulative preferential dividend, or the Minimum Preferred Dividend, equal to 6% of their pro rata share of our capital before dividends may be paid to our common shareholders. The Brazilian Corporations Law allows a publicly traded company like ours to suspend the Mandatory Distribution of dividends in any particular year if our board of directors informs our shareholders that such distributions would be inadvisable in view of our financial condition or cash availability, provided that such suspension does not affect the Minimum Preferred Dividend, which is still payable to the holders of preferred shares. However, the shareholders, including the holders of our class A preferred shares or the ADSs, may not receive any dividends or interest on shareholders’ equity in any given year if our board of directors makes such a determination or if our operations fail to generate net income.

Our class A preferred shares and the ADSs have limited voting rights and are not entitled to vote to approve corporate transactions, including mergers or consolidations of our company with other companies, or the declaration of dividends.

Under the Brazilian Corporations Law and our by-laws, holders of our class A preferred shares and, consequently, the ADSs are not entitled to vote at meetings of our shareholders, except in very limited circumstances. These limited circumstances directly relate to key rights of the holders of class A preferred shares, such as modifying basic terms of our class A preferred shares or creating a new class of preferred shares with superior rights. Holders of preferred shares without voting rights are entitled to elect one member and his or her respective alternate to our board of directors and our fiscal council, depending on specific circumstances provided in the Brazilian Corporations Law. Holders of our class A preferred shares and the ADSs are not entitled to vote to approve corporate transactions, including mergers or consolidations of our company with other companies, or the declaration of dividends. However, if we do not pay dividends for three consecutive years, holders of our class A preferred shares and the ADSs will be granted voting rights. See “Item 10. Additional Information—Description of Our By-laws—Voting Rights.”

Holders of the ADSs may find it difficult to exercise even their limited voting rights at our shareholders’ meetings.

Under Brazilian law, only shareholders registered as such in our corporate books may attend our shareholders’ meetings. All class A preferred shares underlying the ADSs are registered in the name of the depositary. ADS holders may exercise the limited voting rights with respect to our class A preferred shares represented by the ADSs only in accordance with the deposit agreement relating to the ADSs, which provides that voting rights are only available to ADS holders at our discretion. There are practical limitations upon the ability of ADS holders to exercise their voting rights due to the additional steps involved in communicating with ADS holders. For example, we are required to publish a notice of our shareholders’ meetings in certain newspapers in Brazil. To the extent that holders of our class A preferred shares are entitled to vote at a shareholders’ meeting, they will be able to exercise their voting rights by attending the meeting in person or voting by proxy. By contrast, holders of the ADSs will receive notice of a shareholders’ meeting by mail from the depositary following our notice to the ADR depository requesting the ADR depository to do so. To exercise their voting rights, ADS holders must instruct the depositary on a timely basis. This noticed voting process will take longer for ADS holders than for holders of class A preferred shares. If it fails to receive timely voting instructions for all or part of the ADSs, the depositary will assume that the holders of those ADSs are instructing it to give a discretionary proxy to a person designated by us to vote their ADSs, except in limited circumstances.

In the limited circumstances in which holders of the ADSs have voting rights, they may not receive the voting materials in time to instruct the depositary to vote the class A preferred shares underlying their ADSs. In addition, the depositary and its agents are not responsible for failing to carry out the voting instructions of the holders of the ADSs or for the manner of carrying out those voting instructions. Accordingly, holders of the ADSs may not be able to exercise their voting rights, and they will have no recourse if the class A preferred shares underlying their ADSs are not voted as requested.

If holders of the ADSs exchange them for class A preferred shares, they may risk temporarily losing, or being limited in, the ability to remit foreign currency abroad and certain Brazilian tax advantages.

The Brazilian custodian for the preferred shares underlying the ADSs must obtain an electronic registration number with the Central Bank to allow the depositary to remit U.S. dollars abroad. ADS holders benefit from the electronic certificate of foreign capital registration from the Central Bank obtained by the custodian for the depositary, which permits it to convert dividends and other distributions with respect to the class A preferred shares into U.S. dollars and remit the proceeds of such conversion abroad. If holders of the ADSs decide to exchange them for the underlying preferred shares, they will only be entitled to rely on the custodian’s certificate of registration with the Central Bank for five business days after the date of the exchange. Thereafter, they will be unable to remit U.S. dollars abroad unless they obtain a new electronic certificate of foreign capital registration in connection with the preferred shares, which may result in expenses and may cause delays in receiving distributions. See “Item 10. Additional Information—Exchange Controls.”

Also, if holders of the ADSs that exchange the ADSs for our Class A preferred shares do not qualify under the foreign investment regulations, they will generally be subject to less favorable tax treatment of dividends and distribution on, and the proceeds from any sale of, our preferred shares. See “Item 10. Additional information—Exchange Controls” and “Item 10. Additional Information—Taxation—Brazilian Tax Considerations.”

Restrictions on the movement of capital out of Brazil may impair the ability of holders of our shares, ADSs and debt securities to receive payments on their respective obligations or guarantees and may restrict our ability to make payments in U.S. dollars.

In the past, the Brazilian economy has experienced balance of payment deficits and shortages in foreign exchange reserves, and the government has responded by restricting the ability of Brazilian or foreign persons or entities to convert reais into foreign currencies. The government may institute a restrictive exchange control policy in the future. Any restrictive exchange control policy could prevent or restrict our access to U.S. dollars, and consequently our ability to meet our U.S. dollar obligations under our shares, ADSs and the guarantees we granted pursuant to our outstanding senior notes, and could also have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations. We cannot predict the impact of any such measures on the Brazilian economy.

The foreign exchange policy of Brazil may affect the ability of Braskem to make money remittances outside Brazil in respect of our equity securities or debt securities.

Under current Brazilian regulations, Brazilian companies are not required to obtain authorization from the Central Bank in order to make payments under guarantees in favor of foreign persons, such as the holders of our shares, ADSs or the outstanding senior notes. We cannot assure you that these regulations will continue to be in force in the event that Braskem is required to perform its payment obligations under its shares, ADSs or the guarantees under our outstanding senior notes. If these regulations or their interpretation are modified and an authorization from the Central Bank is required, Braskem would need to seek an authorization from the Central Bank to transfer the amounts under such obligations out of Brazil or, alternatively, make such payments with funds held by Braskem outside Brazil. We cannot assure you that such an authorization will be obtained or that such funds will be available. If such authorization is not obtained, we may be unable to make payments to holders of our shares, ADSs and/or the applicable senior notes in U.S. dollars. If we are unable to obtain the required approvals, if needed for the payment of amounts owed by Braskem through remittances from Brazil, we may have to seek other lawful mechanisms to effect payment of amounts due under the shares, ADSs or the senior notes. However, we cannot assure you that other remittance mechanisms will be available in the future, and even if they are available in the future, we cannot assure you that payment on the outstanding senior notes would be possible through such mechanism.

Holders of the ADSs may face difficulties in protecting their interests because we are subject to different corporate rules and regulations as a Brazilian company and our shareholders may have fewer and less well-defined rights.

Holders of the ADSs are not our direct shareholders and are unable to enforce the rights of shareholders under our by-laws and the Brazilian Corporations Law.

Our corporate affairs are governed by our by-laws and the Brazilian Corporations Law, which differ from the legal principles that would apply if we were incorporated in a jurisdiction in the United States, such as the State of Delaware or New York, or elsewhere outside Brazil. Even if a holder of ADSs surrenders its ADSs and becomes a direct shareholder, its rights as a holder of the class A preferred shares underlying the ADSs under the Brazilian Corporations Law to protect its interests relative to actions by our board of directors may be fewer and less well-defined than under the laws of those other jurisdictions.

Although insider trading and price manipulation are crimes under Brazilian law and are the subject of continuously evolving regulations promulgated by the Brazilian Securities and Exchange Commission, or the CVM, the Brazilian securities markets are not as highly regulated and supervised as the U.S. securities markets or the markets in some other jurisdictions. In addition, rules and policies against self-dealing or for preserving shareholder interests may be less well-defined and enforced in Brazil than in the United States and certain other countries, which may put holders of our class A preferred shares and the ADSs at a potential disadvantage. Corporate disclosures also may be less complete or informative than for a public company in the United States or in certain other countries.

Holders of the ADSs may face difficulties in serving process on or enforcing judgments against us and other persons.

We are a corporation (sociedade por ações) organized under the laws of Brazil, and all of our directors and executive officers and our independent public accountants reside or are based in Brazil. Most of our assets and those of these other persons are located in Brazil. As a result, it may not be possible for holders of the ADSs to effect service of process upon us or these other persons within the United States or other jurisdictions outside Brazil or to enforce against us or these other persons judgments obtained in the United States or other jurisdictions outside Brazil. In addition, because a substantial portion of our assets and all of our directors and officers reside outside the United States, any judgment obtained in the United States against us or any of our directors or officers may not be collectible within the United States. Because judgments of U.S. courts for civil liabilities based upon the U.S. federal securities laws may only be enforced in Brazil if certain conditions are met, holders may face greater difficulties in protecting their interests in the case of actions by us or our directors or executive officers than would shareholders of a U.S. corporation.

Judgments of Brazilian courts enforcing Braskem’s obligations under our equity securities or the guarantees would be payable only in reais.

If proceedings are brought in the courts of Brazil seeking to enforce our obligations under our shares, ADSs, the guarantees under our outstanding senior notes or our other indebtedness, we would not be required to discharge our obligations in a currency other than reais. Any judgment obtained against us in Brazilian courts in respect of any payment obligations under such shares, ADSs, guarantees or other indebtedness would be expressed in reais. We cannot assure you that this amount in reais will afford the holders of the shares, ADSs, senior notes or our other indebtedness full compensation of the amount sought in any such litigation.

The New York Stock Exchange has commenced delisting procedures with respect to our ADSs.

On May 13, 2019, the New York Stock Exchange suspended trading of our ADSs on the exchange and commenced proceedings to delist us due to our delay in filing our annual report for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2017. We have appealed the decision. As a result, our ADSs have traded on the over-thecounter (OTC) market in the United States since May 15, 2019, which is a less liquid market than the New York Stock Exchange. If our appeal is unsuccessful and the New York Stock Exchange does not resume trading of our ADSs on the exchange and halts the delisting process, our ADSs may not trade on the New York Stock Exchange in the future. In addition, although we may continue to be subject to reporting and corporate governance requirements applicable under U.S. securities laws and regulations, we would not be subject to the listing requirements under the New York Stock Exchange. If we are not able to resume the trading of our ADSs on the New York Stock Exchange, this could materially impact the market price of our ADSs.

Actual or anticipated sales of a substantial number of class A preferred shares could decrease the market prices of our class A preferred shares and the ADSs.

Sales of a substantial number of our class A preferred shares could negatively affect the market prices of our class A preferred shares and the ADSs. If substantial sales of shares are made through the securities markets by our controlling shareholders or other class A preferred shares, the market price of our class A preferred shares and, by extension, the ADSs may decrease significantly. As a result, holders of the ADSs may not be able to sell the ADSs at or above the price they paid for them.

Holders of the ADSs or class A preferred shares in the United States may not be entitled to the same preemptive rights as Brazilian shareholders have, pursuant to Brazilian legislation, in the subscription of shares resulting from capital increases made by us.

Under Brazilian law, if we issue new shares in exchange for cash or assets as part of a capital increase, subject to certain exceptions, we must grant our shareholders preemptive rights at the time of the subscription of shares, corresponding to their respective interest in our share capital, allowing them to maintain their existing shareholding percentage. We may not legally be permitted to allow holders of ADSs or class A preferred shares in the United States to exercise any preemptive rights in any future capital increase unless (1) we file a registration statement for an offering of shares resulting from the capital increase with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, or the SEC, or (2) the offering of shares resulting from the capital increase qualifies for an exemption from the registration requirements of the Securities Act. At the time of any future capital increase, we will evaluate the costs and potential liabilities associated with filing a registration statement for an offering of shares with the SEC and any other factors that we consider important in determining whether to file such a registration statement. We cannot assure the holders of the ADSs or class A preferred shares in the United States that we will file a registration statement with the SEC to allow them to participate in any of our capital increases. As a result, the equity interest of such holders into us may be diluted.

Brazilian tax laws may have an adverse impact on the taxes applicable to the disposition of our ADSs and preferred shares.

According to Law No. 10,833, of December 29, 2003, if a nonresident of Brazil disposes of assets located in Brazil, the transaction will be subject to taxation in Brazil, even if such disposition occurs outside Brazil or if such disposition is made to another nonresident. Dispositions of our ADSs between nonresidents, however, are currently not subject to taxation in Brazil. Nevertheless, in the event that the concept of “disposition of assets” is interpreted to include the disposition between nonresidents of assets located outside Brazil, this tax law could result in the imposition of withholding taxes in the event of a disposition of our ADSs made between nonresidents of Brazil. Due to the fact that, as of the date of this annual report, there is no judicial guidance on the application of Law No. 10,833/2003, we are unable to predict whether an interpretation applying such tax laws to dispositions of our ADSs between nonresidents could ultimately prevail in Brazilian courts. See “Item 10. Additional Information—Taxation—Brazilian Tax Considerations.”

The relative volatility and liquidity of the Brazilian securities markets may adversely affect holders of our class A preferred shares and ADSs.

The Brazilian securities markets are substantially smaller, less liquid and more volatile than major securities markets in the United States and other jurisdictions, and may be regulated differently from the manner in which U.S. investors are accustomed. Factors that may specifically affect the Brazilian equity markets may limit the ability of holders of the ADSs to sell class A preferred shares underlying ADSs at a price and at a time when they wish to do so and, as a result, could negatively impact the market price of the ADSs themselves.

Economic developments and investor perceptions of risk in other countries, including both in developed or emerging market economies, may adversely affect the trading price of Brazilian securities, including our common shares and ADSs, as well as any outstanding debt securities.

The market value of securities of Brazilian issuers is affected in varying degrees by economic and market conditions in other countries, including in developed countries, such as the United States and certain European countries, and in emerging market countries. Although economic conditions in such countries may differ significantly from economic conditions in Brazil, the reaction of investors to developments in these other countries may have an adverse effect on the market value of securities of Brazilian issuers. The price of shares traded in the Brazilian capital markets, for instance, has been historically subject to fluctuation of interest rates in the United States and the variation in the main U.S. stock exchanges. In addition, crises in other emerging countries may diminish investor interest in securities of Brazilian issuers, including our common shares and ADSs and our debt securities. This could adversely affect the market price of our common shares, ADSs and outstanding debt securities and could also make it more difficult for us to access capital markets, affecting our ability to finance our operations on acceptable terms.

Recently, heightened volatility in the Brazilian market was due to, among other factors, uncertainties regarding adjustments to the implications of the policies of the current U.S. administration, U.S. monetary policy, the United Kingdom’s vote to leave the European Union (popularly known as Brexit) and their consequences on international financial markets, increased aversion to risk in emerging countries, and uncertainties regarding macroeconomic and political conditions. We have no control over and cannot predict the effects of Donald Trump’s administration, policies or actions. Furthermore, we have no control over the United Kingdom’s Brexit negotiations, which requires the United Kingdom and the European Union to reach an agreement by October 31, 2019, absent further extensions to the initial two-year negotiating period. In addition, we are exposed to disruption and volatility of global financial markets due to their effects on the economic and financial environment, particularly in Brazil, such as economic downturn, increased unemployment rate, decreased purchasing power of consumers and unavailability of credit.

These disruptions or volatility in global financial markets may increase even further the negative effects on the Brazilian economic and financial environment, adversely affecting us.

Because Braskem Finance Limited and Braskem Netherlands Finance B.V. have no operations of their own, holders of our outstanding senior notes issued by Braskem Finance Limited or Braskem Netherlands Finance B.V. depend on Braskem to provide Braskem Finance Limited or Braskem Netherlands Finance B.V., respectively, with sufficient funds to make payments on these notes when they become due.

Braskem Finance Limited, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Braskem incorporated in the Cayman Islands, and Braskem Netherlands Finance B.V., or Braskem Netherlands Finance, an indirect wholly-owned subsidiary of Braskem incorporated under the laws of The Netherlands, have no operations of their own other than the issuing and making of payments on their respective senior notes and other indebtedness ranking equally with such senior notes, and using the proceeds therefrom as permitted by the agreements governing these issuances, including lending the net proceeds of the senior notes and other indebtedness incurred by Braskem Finance Limited and Braskem Netherlands Finance to Braskem and subsidiaries of Braskem. Accordingly, the ability of either Braskem Finance Limited or Braskem Netherlands Finance to pay principal, interest and other amounts due on the outstanding senior notes issued by it and other indebtedness will depend upon our financial condition and results of operations and our subsidiaries that are creditors of Braskem Finance Limited or Braskem Netherlands Finance, respectively. In the event of an adverse change in our financial condition or results of operations and our subsidiaries that are creditors of Braskem Finance Limited or Braskem Netherlands Finance, these entities may be unable to service their indebtedness to Braskem Finance Limited or Braskem Netherlands Finance, as the case may be, which would result in the failure of Braskem Finance Limited or Braskem Netherlands Finance, as the case may be, to have sufficient funds to repay all amounts due on or with respect to the respective outstanding senior notes.

Payments on Braskem’s guarantees will be junior to Braskem’s secured debt obligations and effectively junior to debt obligations of Braskem’s subsidiaries and jointly controlled companies.

The outstanding senior notes are fully guaranteed by Braskem on an unsecured basis. The Braskem guarantees will constitute senior unsecured obligations of Braskem. The guarantees will rank equal in right of payment with all of Braskem’s other existing and future senior unsecured indebtedness. Although the guarantees will provide the holders of the senior notes with a direct, but unsecured claim on Braskem’s assets and property, payment on the guarantees will be subordinated to secured debt of Braskem to the extent of the assets and property securing such debt.

Upon any liquidation or reorganization of Braskem, any right of the holders of the notes, through enforcement of Braskem’s guarantees (i) to participate in the assets of Braskem, including the capital stock of its subsidiaries and jointly controlled entities, will be subject to the prior claims of Braskem’s secured creditors, and (ii) to participate in the assets of Braskem’s subsidiaries and jointly controlled entities, and will be subject to the prior claims of the creditors of such subsidiaries and jointly controlled entities. The indentures relating to the outstanding senior notes include a covenant limiting the ability of Braskem and its subsidiaries to create or suffer to exist liens, although this limitation is subject to significant exceptions.

Our Mexico complex was financed under a project finance structure, in which the construction loan must be repaid using exclusively the cash generated by us with shareholders pledging limited guarantees. Accordingly, this financing structure includes guarantees typical to transactions of this kind, such as assets, receivables, cash generation and other rights of Braskem Idesa.

As of December 31, 2017, Braskem had (1) consolidated corporate debt, net of transaction costs, of R$23,674.7 million (US$7,156.8 million), and (2) consolidated debt related to our Mexico Complex of R$9,691.5 million (US$2,929.7 million). Of the consolidated secured corporate debt, R$1,809.2 million (US$546.9 million) was unsecured debt of Braskem S.A., R$380.6 million (US$115.0 million) was secured debt of Braskem S.A., R$21,161.5 million (US$6,397.1 million) was unsecured debt of Braskem’s subsidiaries and special purpose entities (other than Braskem Idesa S.A.P.I.), R$323.5 million (US$97.8 million) was secured debt of Braskem’s subsidiaries and special purpose entities (other than Braskem Idesa S.A.P.I.).

Braskem conducts a portion of its business operations through subsidiaries and jointly controlled companies. In servicing payments to be made on its guarantees of the outstanding senior notes, Braskem may rely, in part, on cash flows from its subsidiaries and jointly controlled companies, mainly in the form of dividend payments and interest on shareholders’ equity. The ability of these subsidiaries and jointly controlled entities to make dividend payments to Braskem will be affected by, among other factors, the obligations of these entities to their creditors, requirements of Brazilian corporate and other law, and restrictions contained in agreements entered into by or relating to these entities. In the event that these subsidiaries and jointly controlled entities fail to make dividend payments to Braskem due to insufficient cash flows, Braskem may be required to utilize its own cash flow to service payments on its outstanding senior notes.

According to IHS we are the largest producer of thermoplastic resins in the Americas, based on annual production capacity of our 29 plants in Brazil, six plants in the United States, two plants in Germany and four plants in Mexico as of December 31, 2017. We are the only producer of ethylene, polyethylene and polypropylene in Brazil. We produce a diversified portfolio of petrochemical and thermoplastic products and have a strategic focus on thermoplastic resins, including polyethylene, polypropylene and PVC.

As of December 31, 2017, our business operations were organized into five business units, which corresponded to our principal production processes, products and services. Our business units were as follows:

Approximately 50.6%, 51.7% and 53.1% of our net sales revenue in 2015, 2016 and 2017, respectively, was derived from our Brazilian operations, and 49.4%, 48.3% and 46.9% of our net sales revenue in 2015, 2016 and 2017 was derived from our international operations (including exports from Brazil). We expect this process of internationalization to continue.

Our strategic objective is to satisfy clients in the chemicals and plastics value chain in a sustainable way and maximize return on the capital invested by shareholders, with a focus on:

The petrochemical industry is constantly evolving through investments in the current asset base, advances in innovation and technology, and addition of new capacities with enhanced productivity and competitiveness. Therefore, in order to maintain our leadership position in the industry a key element of our strategy is to pursue improvements in productivity and competitiveness of our current operations, focused on operational efficiency and excellence, commercial and logistics effectiveness, and cost leadership and differentiation through our relationships with clients.

Innovation and technology remains an important path to increase productivity and competitiveness and we are currently focusing efforts on development and innovation to constantly improve our operations. Focus on innovation extends not only to operations and our product portfolio but also to new management models and business practices. We seek to position ourselves to adopt and implement new digital technologies and solutions that bring greater efficiency to our industrial processes and business management.

This strategy will allow us to ensure optimal operational performance, considering reliability, production optimization, cost reductions, investment discipline and improvements of our industrial processes.

· Feedstock Diversification

Feedstock is a key element of competitiveness in the petrochemical industry, driving a large part of production costs. Petrochemical feedstocks follow the volatile nature of commodity markets with the competitive gap between different feedstocks fluctuating over time and presenting different opportunities in specific regions.

We are constantly seeking to diversify our feedstock profile in order to reduce the volatility of our results, reduce risks related to feedstock availability, and position ourselves to capture opportunities. We are currently working to increase our exposure to gas, diversifying away from naphtha while investing in the flexibility of our assets to consume different feedstocks.

In 2017, we started a project that enables us to produce up to 15% of ethylene from ethane in the Northeastern complex of Brazil with a long-term ethane supply agreement with an US based supplier with pricing based on the Mont Belvieu reference. We are also focused on capturing available feedstock opportunities in our current asset base by operating our US PP assets and Mexico cracker at full capacity, capturing propylene and ethane competitive advantage in the North American market and securing competitive feedstock contracts with a long-term view.

Additionally we are constantly monitoring opportunities to grow our asset base in feedstock advantaged regions and position our assets to capture local feedstock opportunities further diversifying our feedstock matrix, enhancing competitiveness and reducing exposure to feedstock related risks.

· Geographic Diversification

Regional markets are influenced by the local supply and demand balance, macro-economic factors and the political environment. Having a local presence in a given market not only provides easier access to regional customers, feedstock opportunities and industrial policies, but also exposes the player to a number of risks related to government decisions, feedstock availability and demand growth. Having a diversified footprint is important to have access to regional opportunities but also to hedging our operations against local risks.

An important pillar of our strategy is to diversify geographically, growing our global footprint outside Brazil and increasing our competitive scale in PE and PP, enhancing our leadership in the Americas.

We started diversifying geographically in 2010 with the acquisition of Sunoco assets in the United States, continuing in the following year with the acquisition of Dow PP assets in the United States and Europe and later in 2016 with the start-up of our greenfield ethane cracker in Mexico integrated with three polyethylene plants. More recently in 2017 we have started-up a new Ultra High Molecular Weight Polyethylene - UHMWPE (UTEC^®) plant in the United States, which strengthened our position as one of the largest producers in the world and approved the construction of a new PP asset in the United States, the largest PP production line in the Americas.

Braskem intends to continue its strategy to diversify geographically while continuing to strengthen our position in the Americas in PE and PP.

· People, Governance and Reputation

We are committed to strengthening our image and reputation among key stakeholders - team members, society and investors, through advances in our compliance system, sustainability, innovation and people management, while strengthening our culture and financial health.

We are committed to strengthening our compliance system, guaranteeing the involvement and responsibility of all leaders and implementing all policies and actions defined by our compliance committee, guided by transparency, integrity and ethics.

Sustainability will continue to be an important aspect of our strategy and we will continue to drive improvements to our health, environment, safety, and eco-indicators, and strengthen our influence in local and international agendas of sustainable development.

In people management, we intend to develop a work environment that reinforces diversity and stimulates the attraction and integration of talented young people, preparing our team for the increasing globalization of our company and preparing the company for the new paradigms of managing people.

By these means, we intend to continue strengthening our image and reputation together with our stakeholders, positioning ourselves as a human-oriented, forward-thinking global company that cultivates strong relationships and generates value to all, offering sustainable solutions in chemicals and plastics.

History and Development of Our Company

Our business began when the Odebrecht Group (comprised of Odebrecht S.A. and its subsidiaries) and Mariani Group acquired control of Copene, a raw materials petrochemical complex in Camaçari, in July 2001, and then subsequently integrated their assets in the petrochemical sector with Copene. From 2001 to 2004, we underwent a corporate reorganization and merged many recently acquired companies. In addition, we acquired Polialden in 2005 and Politeno in 2006.

Through a partnership with Petrobras, we began consolidating the Southern Complex in Brazil in March 2007 with the acquired petrochemical assets from the Ipiranga group. In November 2007, we signed an agreement with Petrobras and Odebrecht, which required them to contribute part of their assets in the petrochemical sector to Braskem. In September 2008, Ipiranga Petroquímica, Petroquímica Paulínia and the spun-off portion of Ipiranga Química were merged into our company. In May 2009, our merger with Triunfo was approved.

In January 2010, we announced the acquisition of Quattor in order to strengthen the Brazilian petrochemical sector and establish ourselves among the five largest and most competitive petrochemical companies in the world. In February 2010, we announced the acquisition of the polypropylene assets of Sunoco Chemicals, the fourth largest producer of this resin in the United States. This acquisition represented an important step towards strengthening our internationalization strategy, which combines our growth in the U.S. market with alternative access to competitive raw materials and main consumer markets. As a result of this acquisition, we became a leader of thermoplastic resins in the Americas, consolidating our position as a major player in the international petrochemical market and the third largest global player in the polypropylene industry. In 2010, Braskem inaugurated its green ethylene plant in Triunfo, Rio Grande do Sul, becoming the world leader in biopolymers and launched the brand I'm green^TM, which identifies Braskem’s products made from renewable sources.

In July 2011, we announced the acquisition of Dow Chemical’s polypropylene business, including four plants (two plants in the United States and two plants in Germany). The U.S. assets, located in Freeport and Seadrift, Texas, have a combined annual production capacity of 545,000 tons, which represented a 50% increase in annual capacity polypropylene production in the United States. The German assets, located in the cities of Wesseling and Schkopau, have a combined annual production capacity of 545,000 tons. This acquisition represented an important step in the consolidation of our international strategy, positioning us as the largest producer of polypropylene in the United States.

Beginning of Operations of Our Mexico Unit

In April, 2016 Braskem Idesa, our joint venture with the Mexican Idesa group, reached an important milestone with the production of the first batch of polyethylene in the Mexico Petrochemical Complex following a gradual start-up process initiated in December 2015 with the beginning of utilities area operations, followed by the start-up of the cracker in March 2016.

Located in the state of Veracruz, the Mexico Complex includes an ethane cracker integrated with three polyethylene plants, as well as utilities plants (electric power, water and steam). Ethane supply is assured through a 20-year contract with Pemex TRI at a price pegged to the U.S. gas price.

The following chart presents our simplified ownership structure and the corporate structure of our principal subsidiaries as of the date of this annual report. The percentages in bold italics represent the direct and indirect percentage of the voting share capital owned by each entity, and the percentages not in bold italics represent the direct and indirect percentage of the total share capital owned by each entity.

In November 2017, Braskem Petroquímica Ltda., or Braskem Petro, merged with and into Braskem S.A., with Braskem S.A. as the surviving entity. This merger simplified our corporate structure by consolidating our activities to reduce financial and operating costs.

In January 2019, Odebrecht informed us of the Odebrecht Reorganization, which became effective retroactively on December 31, 2018. For additional information on the Odebrecht Reorganization, see “Item 5. Operating and Financial Review and Prospects—Recent Developments—Odebrecht Reorganization.”

We are a corporation (sociedade por ações) organized under the laws of Brazil. Our registered office is at Rua Eteno, 1561, Pólo Petroquímico, Camaçari, Bahia, CEP 42810-000, Brazil, and our telephone number at this address is 55-71-3413-2102. Our principal executive office is at Rua Lemos Monteiro, 120 – 24° andar, Butantã, São Paulo, SP, CEP 05501-050, Brazil, and our telephone number at this address is 55-11-3576-9000.

In September 2017, our Basic Petrochemicals Unit changed its name to “Chemicals Unit” in order to reflect the nomenclature used by other companies in the same market.

As of December 31, 2017 according to IHS, our Chemicals Unit’s facilities had one of the largest annual production capacities of all first generation producers in the Americas, including net sales to our other business units, our Chemicals Unit generated net sales revenue of R$25,179.3 million in 2017 or 41.0% of the net sales revenue of all reportable segments.

Our Chemicals Unit is comprised of the Chemicals operations conducted by our company in the Northeastern Complex, the Southern Complex, the São Paulo Complex and the Rio de Janeiro Complex.

The products of our Chemicals Unit are used primarily in the manufacture of intermediate second generation petrochemical products, including those manufactured by our Polyolefins Unit and our Vinyls Unit. Our Chemicals Unit also supplies other second generation producers in each of the petrochemical complexes in which we operate and other companies located outside of these complexes, and renders services to those producers In 2017, 85.1% of our Chemicals Unit’s net sales revenue (including intra-company sales) was derived from the sale of basic petrochemicals, 7.7% from the sale of fuels, 0.5% from the resale of naphtha and condensate, 3.0% from the sale of intermediates and 3.6% from the sale of utilities and services.

Our other business units and third-party petrochemical producers use ethylene and propylene produced by our Chemicals Unit to produce second generation products such as polyethylene, polypropylene and PVC. We also sell butadiene, a variety of aromatics, including BTX products, and intermediates, such as cumene, to third-party petrochemical producers for use as raw materials in the production of a variety of second generation products, including synthetic rubber, elastomers, resins, nylon fibers, ethyl benzene (which is used to make styrene monomer/polystyrene), linear alkyl benzene, purified terephthalic acid, dimethyl terephthalate, bisphenol A, a feedstock for the production of polycarbonate resins, phthalic anhydride, plasticizers and paint.

The following table sets forth the sales volume of basic petrochemicals by our Chemicals Unit (excluding our intra-company sales) for the periods indicated.

We believe that the technological processes we use at plants in our Chemicals are among the most advanced in the world. Our Chemicals Unit currently owns and operates:

· five major production facilities in the Northeastern Complex (two olefins units, two aromatics units and one utilities unit);

· five major production facilities in the Southern Complex (two olefins units, one green ethylene unit, one aromatics unit and one utilities unit);

· three production facilities in the São Paulo Complex (one olefins unit, one aromatics unit and one utilities unit); and

· two production facilities in the Rio de Janeiro Complex (one olefins unit and one utilities unit).

We define the term “unit” to mean several production lines that are linked together to produce olefins, aromatics or utilities.

The table below sets forth the primary products of our Chemicals Unit, annual production capacity as of December 31, 2017 and annual production for the years presented.

Naphtha is the main raw material that we use to produce our chemical products and represents the principal production and operating cost of our Chemicals Unit. We also use condensate as a raw material in the Southern Complex. The following table shows the average Amsterdam-Rotterdam-Antwerp, or the ARA price, of naphtha for the periods indicated.

	2018	2017	2016	2015

Average(1)	US$574.00	US$483.84	US$385.41	US$461.89
Month ended:
January	592.00	499.37	317.82	396.91
February	556.00	498.26	292.71	502.13
March	572.00	459.41	350.64	504.86
April	607.00	467.94	379.27	525.61
May	668.00	434.62	402.43	550.86
June	633.00	400.68	417.19	538.07
July	643.00	424.81	380.15	472.37
August	641.00	459.16	369.00	403.38
September	676.00	503.96	395.89	411.66
October	662.00	519.13	441.79	430.26
November	507.00	571.73	415.97	419.18
December	463.00	566.98	463.16	387.41

(1) The information in the “Average” row represents the mean average monthly naphtha prices during each respective year.

The following table shows the distribution of the naphtha plus condensate purchases by our Chemicals Unit for the periods indicated by geographic location of the suppliers.

On December 23, 2015, we and Petrobras entered into a new five-year Naphtha Purchase Agreement. This contract replaced the naphtha supply contract between our company and Petrobras for the supply of naphtha to our Chemicals plants located in the Northeastern Complex and superseded the naphtha supply contract between our company and Petrobras for the supply of naphtha to our Chemicals plants located in the Southern Complex, Northeastern Complex and São Paulo Complex. The contract will expire in December 2020.

The Association for the Research, Production, Transport, Transformation and Sale of Hydrocarbons (Société Nationale pour la Recherche, la Production, le Transport, la Transformation et la Commercialisation des Hydrocarbures), or SONATRACH (the Algerian national oil company), is one of our suppliers of imported naphtha and condensate. We have imported naphtha supplied by SONATRACH since 2002. On an annual basis, we negotiate the minimum and maximum volumes of naphtha and condensate that we will purchase from SONATRACH. On average, we buy around one million tons of condensate and around 400 thousand tons of naphtha from SONATRACH. In the event that we were unable to renew our supply arrangements with SONATRACH, we believe that we could purchase sufficient quantities of naphtha from other suppliers to meet the supply needs of our chemicals plants.

As part of our strategy to diversify our sources of supply of naphtha, we are acquiring naphtha under annual supply arrangements with international suppliers.

In addition to our supplies of feedstock under the agreements described above, we purchase naphtha on the spot market from time to time from foreign suppliers located in Africa, Europe, North America and Latin America.

In addition to our supplies of feedstock under the agreements described above, we purchase condensate on the spot market from time to time from foreign suppliers located in West Africa.

Ethane and propane are the principal feedstocks that we use to produce our chemical products in the Rio de Janeiro Complex and represent the principal production and operating cost of the Chemical unit in the Rio de Janeiro Complex. The price of ethane and propane that we purchase varies primarily based on changes in the U.S. dollar-based international price of these feedstocks.

Braskem also has an ethane supply contract with Enterprise Products Operating LLC, or ENTERPRISE, to supply ethane from USA to Brazil. The price of ethane is based on the Mont Belvieu ethane price plus a Terminal Fee, basis FOB USGC. The logistics to move the ethane to Brazil is managed by Braskem.

Since February 2017, Braskem has had the capability to receive imported ethane at the Rio de Janeiro Complex. The imported ethane is marginal to domestic supply and the quantity imported in 2017 was 17 kt.

Since November 2017, Braskem has the capacity to consume ethane in the cracker in Bahia, partially replacing naphtha. Braskem has invested to create the flexibility to substitute naphtha for ethane in a ratio equivalent to 15% of the ethylene production of the site.

In January 2005, we entered into an agreement with Petrobras for the purchase and sale of steam from refinery off gas, from which we separate ethylene and propylene. This agreement provides that we and Petrobras will negotiate the renewal of this agreement prior to its expiration in 2020 and that, in the event that Petrobras does not intend to renew this agreement, it must notify us at least two years prior to the expiration of this agreement and must perform under the terms and conditions of this agreement until 2028. Under the terms of this agreement, which represents 100% of our refinery off gas supply:

In December 2017, Petrobras informed us that it would not renew this agreement on the same terms. We are currently negotiating the terms and conditions of a future agreement for the purchase and sale of steam from refinery off gas with Petrobras, which would become effective following the expiration of the current agreement in 2028. By now, we cannot assure you the impact of the new terms and conditions of a possible future agreement and any failure to successfully negotiate with Petrobras could impair our ability to satisfy our refinery off gas needs.

To supply our industrial operations in Brazil, which represents 82% of our global electric consumption, we self-generate approximately 22% of our electrical energy consumption. Approximately 33% of our demand is supplied by Companhia Hidrelétrica do São Francisco, or CHESF, a Brazilian government-owned electric power generation company, pursuant to a power purchase agreement. The remaining energy is supplied primarily under long-term contracts with several suppliers in the free energy market (Mercado Livre de Energia).

Natural gas is supplied to our industrial operations in Brazil under long-term contracts in the regulated market by companies that have government licenses and exclusivity to deliver it in each state. The natural gas consumed by our operations in Brazil in 2017 represented 63% of Braskem’s consumption.

In the Southern Complex we also buy methanol to produce MTBE and ethanol to produce the “green polyethylene.” Methanol is imported and price is based in international market quotations. Ethanol is bought in the domestic market from several producers. In the Bahia Complex, we also buy ethanol to produce ETBE.

We sell 70% of our Chemical products in Brazil to third-party petrochemical producers. We sell the remainder of our Chemical products to customers in the United States, Europe, South America and Asia. The following table sets forth our net sales revenue derived from domestic and export sales, excluding inter-company sales, by our Chemicals Unit for the years indicated:

As part of our commercial strategy, our Chemicals Unit focuses on developing long-term relationships with our customers and entering into long-term supply contracts that provide for minimum and maximum quantities to be purchased and monthly deliveries. We determine the domestic prices that we charge for ethylene by reference to Western European contract prices. We determine the domestic prices that we charge for propylene based on a formula under which 50% of the price is determined generally by reference to Northwest Europe prices and the remaining 50% is determined by reference to the North American contract prices. We determine the domestic price of butadiene by reference to the U.S. Gulf contract price. We set the domestic prices of our BTX products, including benzene, para-xylene and toluene by reference to United States, contract or spot market prices. We set the domestic prices of solvents by reference to international market prices, and we determine the domestic prices for our other olefins and aromatics products with reference to several international market indicators.

We export chemicals mainly to customers in the United States and in Europe, and we set the price on international references bases in accordance with which region or country.

We are focused on maintaining our leading position in the Brazilian market, while continuing to use our exports to optimize our operations and adjust the imbalances between demand and production. Export net sales of our Chemicals Unit represented 16.6% of our Chemicals Unit’s net sales revenue during 2017.

Additionally, we have applied our expertise in commodities trading to resale of naphtha and ethane in the international markets. In order to meet our crackers’ naphtha and ethane requirements (in terms of timing, pricing and quality), we maintain an excess supply of feedstock and resell the surplus on the spot market. During 2017, we recorded resale operations of R$135.2 million.

Our chemical customers, which are mostly second generation petrochemical producers with plants located in the Brazilian petrochemical complexes, would have difficulty obtaining their feedstocks from other sources at lower prices due to the high cost of transportation of these products, as well as other logistical difficulties. In addition, because Brazil produces sufficient quantities of olefins to meet domestic demand, imports of these products are generally sporadic and usually related to scheduled plant maintenance shutdowns or to meet unsatisfied domestic demand.

During the past several years, as the relative cost of naphtha and gas as feedstock for petrochemical crackers has diverged, many crackers using gas as a feedstock have become low-cost producers in the global markets and have seen their margins improve as compared to naphtha crackers. . However, as gas crackers are able to produce fewer of the co-products and byproducts that naphtha crackers generate, such as propylene, butadiene and BTX products, and in smaller quantities, the prices of these products in the international markets have increased. As a result of the increased prices available for these co-products and byproducts, our net sales revenue from export sales of these products increased. Competition in the international markets for these products is primarily based on the price of delivered products and competition has increased since mid-2008 as the balance between supply and demand was disrupted due to the impact of the global economic downturn on consumers of these products. In the international markets for our Chemical products, we compete with a large number of producers, some of which are substantially larger and have substantially greater financial, manufacturing, technological and marketing resources than our company.

As of December 31, 2017, our polyolefins production facilities had the largest annual production capacity of all second generation producers of polyolefins products in Latin America. Our Polyolefins Unit generated net sales revenue of R$19,650.4 million during 2017.

Our Polyolefins Unit is comprised of the operations conducted by our company at nine polyethylene plants and five polypropylene plants located in the Northeastern Complex, the Southern Complex, the São Paulo Complex and the Rio de Janeiro Complex.

· polyethylene, including LDPE, LLDPE, HDPE, ultra-high molecular weight polyethylene, or UHMWPE, EVA and “green polyethylene” from renewable resources; and

We manufacture a broad range of polyolefins for use in consumer and industrial applications, including:

The following table sets forth a breakdown of the sales volume of our Polyolefins Unit by product line and by market for the years indicated.

We provide technical assistance to our customers to meet their specific needs by adapting and modifying our polyethylene and polypropylene products. In particular, we develop customized value-added polypropylene grades for use by our customers in their specialized applications. We believe that the variety of technological processes at our polyolefins plants provides us with a competitive advantage in meeting our customers’ needs.

As of December 31, 2017, our Polyolefins Unit owned 14 production facilities. Our Polyolefins Unit operates five plants located in the Southern Complex, three plants located in the Northeastern Complex, four plants located in the São Paulo Complex and two plants located in the Rio de Janeiro Complex.

The table below sets forth for each of our primary polyolefins products, our annual production capacity as of December 31, 2017 and annual production for the years presented.

(1) Represents capacity and production at five production lines with swing line capacity capable of producing two types of resins.

(2) Represents capacity and production at eight production lines with swing line capacity capable of producing two types of resins. Capacity varies depending on actual production demands.

In September 2010, we commenced production of ethylene at a new plant located in the Southern Complex that produces “green” ethylene using sugar cane ethanol received through the Santa Clara Terminal as its primary raw material. This plant has an annual production capacity of 200,000 tons of ethylene.

During 2014, we converted and expanded, by 25,000 tons, one of our polyethylene lines in the state of Bahia to produce metallocene-based LLDPE. This project began its operations in January 2015.

The most significant direct costs associated with our production of polyethylene and polypropylene are the costs of purchasing ethylene and propylene, which together accounted for 86.6% of our Polyolefins Unit’s total variable cost of production during 2017. During 2017, our Polyolefins Unit purchased all of its ethylene requirements and approximately 60% of its propylene requirements from our Chemicals Unit.

We hold multiple propylene contracts with Petrobras refineries, which in 2017 were responsible for the supply of 40% of our propylene demand to produce polypropylene. These supply contracts have initial terms expiring at various dates between May 2021 and April 2028, and are priced based on international references to assure competitiveness of feedstock. In 2016, Braskem entered into an agreement with Petrobras for a 5-year propylene supply contract with Refap S.A., a subsidiary of Petrobras. This supply contract is also priced based on international references.

Petrobras may terminate these contracts, without prior notice, in the event of: (1) our failure to cure any breach of the contract following a 30-day grace period; (2) a force majeure event occurs, although some of these contracts require that the force majeure event continues for more than 180 days; (3) we transfer or offer as a guaranty all or part of its rights and obligations under the contract to a third party without Petrobras’ consent; (4) an alteration of Braskem management or corporate purposes that conflicts with the purpose of the contract; (5) the dissolution, bankruptcy or liquidation of Braskem; and (6) a change of entity type, merger, sale, spin-off or any other corporate reconstruction of Braskem that conflicts with or impedes the execution of contract’s purpose.

We hold multiple ethanol contracts with major producers of ethanol to supply our new facility that produces ethylene using sugar cane ethanol. These supply contracts have initial terms expiring at various dates between April 2019 and July 2019. Under these contracts, we are or will be required to purchase an annual supply of ethanol sufficient to meet approximately 90% of the capacity of this ethylene plant. The price we pay under these contracts is or will be determined by reference to the monthly price of combustible hydrated alcohol as published by the Center for Advanced Studies in Applied Economics of the Superior School of Agriculture (Centro de Estudos Avançados em Economia Aplicada da Escola Superior de Agricultura– CEPEA/ESALQ).

We also purchase ethanol on the spot market from time to time to supplement the supplies that we obtain under these contracts. The price that we pay for ethanol under most of these contracts is determined by reference to market indexes.

Our Polyolefins Unit uses butene and n-hexane as raw materials in the production of HDPE and LLDPE. Butene is supplied by our Chemicals Unit, and we import n-hexane from suppliers located in South Africa and U.S. Gulf Coast.

Our Unipol polyethylene plants in the Northeastern Complex and Rio de Janeiro Complex use catalysts supplied by Univation Technologies. Our HDPE plant in the São Paulo Complex uses catalysts supplied by W.R. Grace & Co. The catalysts for our swing line LLDPE/HDPE plants are purchased from Basell Polyolefins Company N.V., or Basell. We produce our own catalysts for our HDPE slurry plants in the Southern and Northeastern Complexes, and we purchase the inputs that we need to produce these catalysts from various suppliers at market prices. Our polypropylene plants use catalysts primarily supplied by Basell, while we import certain catalysts from suppliers in the United States and Europe.

In general, we believe that there are sufficient alternative sources available at reasonable prices for each of these other inputs used in our polyolefins production process such that the loss of any single supplier would not have a material adverse effect on our operations.

Our Polyolefins Unit sells polyethylene and polypropylene products to more than 1,500 customers worldwide. We have a diversified product mix that allows us to serve a broad range of end users in several industries. The customers of our Polyolefins Unit generally are third generation petrochemical producers that manufacture a wide variety of plastic-based consumer and industrial goods.

The following table sets forth our net sales revenue derived from domestic and export sales by our Polyolefins Unit for the years indicated:

Domestic Sales

We are focused on developing long-term relationships with our customers. Given the cyclical nature of the markets for our polyolefins products, we believe that we can strengthen customer loyalty during periods of reduced demand for polyethylene or polypropylene by providing a reliable source of supply to these customers during periods of high demand. We work closely with our customers to determine their needs, to provide technical assistance and to coordinate the production and delivery of our products. Customers submit annual proposals giving their estimated monthly requirements for the upcoming year for each of our polyolefins products, including technical specifications, delivery terms and proposed payment conditions. We evaluate these proposals on a monthly basis to make any required adjustments and to monitor and attempt to ensure adequate supply for each customer.

In addition to direct sales of polyolefins to our customers, our Polyolefins Unit sells products in Brazil through exclusive independent distributors. Our Polyolefins Unit is served by five distributors, through which we distribute our products pursuant to formal agreements and spot market transactions.

We have selected our distributors based on their ability to provide full service to their customers, including the ability to prepare our products on a customized basis. These distributors sell our polyethylene and polypropylene products to manufacturers with lower volume requirements and are able to aggregate multiple orders for delivery to customers that would otherwise be uneconomical for us to serve. Furthermore, by serving smaller customers through a network of distributors, our account managers focus their efforts on delivering high quality service to a smaller number of large, direct customers.

Export Sales

Our volume of polyolefins export sales has generally varied based upon the level of domestic demand and the total production availability for our products. Our Polyolefins Unit has sales office in Argentina, Chile, Peru and Colombia. These offices are used to consolidate our marketing efforts in South America, one of our key markets outside of Brazil for this business unit. Our Polyolefins Unit also uses our European, Mexican and U.S. sales force in order to improve the profitability of our sales. In each of these regions, we have specific commercial strategies in connection with exports coming from Brazil, which complements our local product availability.

We have established a strategic position in the polyolefins business in South America, North America and Europe through regular direct sales, local distributors and agents who understand their respective markets. Our strategy to increase our presence in these foreign markets is intended, among other things, to reduce our exposure to the cyclicality of the international spot market for polyolefins through the development of long-term relationships with customers in neighboring countries. Our local presence in the United States and Europe allows us to further enhance our position in those markets and sell our Polyolefins Unit products through our USA and Europe Unit.

The main focus of our Polyolefins Unit is to maintain our leading position in the Brazil and South America reinforcing our commitment to the plastic industry chain in the region, maintaining our position as a leader in polyolefins through a continued local presence and regular product supply.

Prices and Sales Terms

We determine the domestic prices for polyethylene by reference to North American export prices and our domestic prices for polypropylene with Asian and Latin America spot prices references. Our customers in Brazil may pay in full on delivery or elect credit terms that require payment in full within three to 60 days following delivery. We charge interest based on prevailing market rates to our Brazilian customers that elect to pay on credit.

In addition, besides our strategic sales to South America, Europe, Mexico and the United States, our Polyolefins Unit generally conducts export sales to buyers in Asia and Africa through the international spot market. Our customer base in these markets consists primarily of trading houses and distributors. Pricing is based on international spot market prices.

We are the only producer of polyethylene and polypropylene in Brazil. We compete with polyolefins producers worldwide. In 2017, Brazilian polyethylene and polypropylene imports increased by 4.8% and represented 27% of Brazilian polyolefin consumption.

We compete for export sales of our polyolefins products in other countries in Latin America and in the North American, Asian and European markets. We compete with a variety of resin producers, some of which have greater financial, research and development, production and other resources than our company. Our competitive position in the export markets that we serve is primarily based on customer relationship, product differentiation (mainly on renewable polyethylene), raw material costs, selling prices, product quality and customer service and support.

We are the only green polyethylene producer in the world, made by sugar cane that is 100% verified by ASTM D6866.

· the operations of Braskem America, which consist of five polypropylene plants in the United States and one Ultra High Molecular Weight Polyethylene - UTEC^® plant; and

As of December 31, 2017, our USA and Europe Unit’s facilities had the largest annual polypropylene production capacity in the United States. Our USA and Europe Unit generated net sales revenue of R$9,854.5 million during 2017.

In June 2014, we announced the construction of an UHMWPE production line in our La Porte, Texas site, which began producing UTEC^® in the first quarter of 2017. We believe that the production of specialized UHMWPE at this new line complements our existing portfolio of products and will enable us to access new markets and to develop close relationships with new and existing clients.

Our USA and Europe Unit produces polypropylene. The sales volume of polypropylene by this unit was approximately 2,116.529 tons in 2017, 2,008,473 tons in 2016 and 1,973,274 tons in 2015. For a description of the uses of our polypropylene products, see “—Polyolefins Unit.”

The table below sets forth the annual production capacity as of December 31, 2017 of the USA and Europe Unit’s polypropylene plants in the United States and Germany and the annual production for the years presented.

The most significant direct cost associated with the production of polypropylene by our USA and Europe Unit is the cost of purchasing propylene.

We acquire propylene for our polypropylene plants in the Unites States under a variety of long-term supply agreements and through the spot market. As of December 31, 2017, we had long-term supply agreements with multiple suppliers. The pricing formulas for propylene under these supply agreements are generally based on market prices. A portion of the propylene supplied to our gulf coast plants is provided by a limited partnership that we formed with a leading basic petrochemicals producer, under which we acquire propylene produced by an ethylene facility of that producer in Texas. Under the terms of the partnership agreement, the partnership has agreed to provide us with sufficient propylene to produce up to approximately 25% of our U.S. Gulf Coast plants’ current annual production capacity into early 2018, at prices calculated based on a cost-based formula that includes a fixed discount that declines until 2018.

As a result of rising natural gas production and related production of natural gas liquids, several companies have announced plans to build propane dehydrogenation, or PDH plants, which would produce on-purpose propylene. We have secured a long-term propylene agreement of approximately 15 years with one such company, Enterprise Products, which is currently building a PDH plant in Texas with an annual capacity of 750,000 tons. We expect this agreement with an established producer to provide us with a competitive, long-term supply of propylene, using shale gas and other nontraditional sources as its feedstock. This plant has commenced operations by the end of 2017. Under this arrangement, the pricing of these contracts will be based on market prices for propane and other market costs.

We acquire propylene for our polypropylene plants in Germany under long-term supply agreements that provide for the supply of approximately 90% of the propylene requirements of these plants. We have two main supply agreements. One of these supply agreements will expire in September 2021, and is automatically renewable for consecutive one-year terms, unless cancelled by one of the parties, and the other supply agreement expires in December 2021. The pricing formula for propylene under these supply agreements is based on market prices. We purchase the propylene used in our Europe plants based on monthly contract price for propylene for Europe (as reported by ICIS-LOR).

Our USA and Europe Unit sells polypropylene products to approximately 375 customers. We have a diversified product mix that allows us to serve a broad range of end users in several industries. The customers of our USA and Europe Unit generally are third generation petrochemical producers that manufacture a wide variety of plastic-based consumer and industrial goods.

The following table sets forth our net sales revenue derived from sales of our USA and Europe Unit for the years indicated:

Approximately 40% of the sales of polypropylene by the USA and Europe Unit are made under long-term supply agreements with our customers. These supply contracts generally have an initial two-year term and are automatically renewable for one-year periods unless one party notifies the other of its intention not to renew. These contracts also provide for minimum and maximum quantities to be purchased and monthly deliveries.

The remainder of the polypropylene production of the USA and Europe Unit is sold through (1) our direct sales force that seeks to establish supply relationships with customers, (2) a select number of distributors authorized to represent the Braskem brand in the U.S. and European markets, (3) resellers that trade these products under private labels in the North American and European markets, and (4) traders that resell these products in the export markets.

The USA and Europe Unit is largely a commodities business and competes with local, regional, national and international companies, some of which have greater financial, research and development, production and other resources than our company. Although competitive factors may vary among product lines, our competitive position is primarily based on raw material and production costs, selling prices, product quality, product technology, manufacturing technology, access to new markets, proximity to the market and customer service and support.

Our primary competitors for sales in the polypropylene industry in North America are other large international petrochemical companies. In general, demand is a function of economic growth in North America and elsewhere in the world.

Our primary competitors for sales in the polypropylene industry in Europe are other large international petrochemical companies. In general, demand is a function of economic growth in Europe and elsewhere in the world.

Mexico Unit

Braskem and Idesa, one of Mexico’s leading petrochemical groups, formed Braskem Idesa S.A.P.I. in April 2010, with Braskem holding 75% of the total share capital and Idesa holding the remaining 25%, to develop, construct and operate the Mexico Complex, located in the Mexican state of Veracruz. During April 2016, Braskem Idesa commenced commercial operations of the Mexico Complex. As a result of the commencement of operations of the Mexico Complex, we commenced recording the results of our Mexico business unit as a separate segment in our financial statements as of dates and for periods ended after January 1, 2017.

Our Mexico business unit produces ethylene, HDPE and LDPE at our Mexico Complex. We use all of the ethylene produced by our Mexico Complex as raw material for the production of polyethylene by this complex. The sales volume of polyethylene by this unit was approximately 969.330 tons in 2017. As with our Polyolefins Unit, our Mexico Complex manufactures a broad range of polyethylene grades for use in consumer and industrial applications, including plastic films for food and industrial packaging, bottles, shopping bags and other consumer goods containers, automotive parts, and household appliances.

Technologies selected for the Mexico Unit are proven and considered stated of the art with excellent track records in the petrochemical market and provide a competitive advantage in serving our customers to meet their specific needs by adapting and modifying our polyethylene products.

Our Mexico Unit operates four plants located in the Mexico Complex, consisting of:

· an ethylene cracker, with an annual production capacity of 1,050,000 tons of ethylene, which commenced operations in March 2016;

· two high density polyethylene plants, with a combined annual production capacity of 750,000 tons, which commenced operations in April 2016; and

· a low density polyethylene plant, with an annual production capacity of 300,000 tons, which commenced operations in June 2016.

Raw Materials of Our Mexico Unit

Ethane

Ethane is the principal raw material that we use to produce ethylene in the Mexico Complex and represent the principal production and operating cost of the Mexico Complex. The price of ethane that we purchase varies based on changes in the U.S. dollar-based US reference price of these feedstocks.

Ethylene

All of the ethylene produced by our Mexico Complex is used by the polyethylene plants in our Mexico Complex.

Other Materials and Utilities

Our Mexico Unit uses hexene as raw materials in the production of HDPE. We import hexene for the Mexico Complex from suppliers located in the United States.

Our Mexico Unit uses catalysts supplied by Ineos Europe Limited.

Supply Contracts of the Mexico Unit

Ethane

Braskem Idesa is party to an ethane supply agreement with Pemex TRI, a subsidiary of Pemex, dated February 19, 2010, pursuant to which Pemex TRI is obligated to provide, and Braskem Idesa to purchase, 66,000 barrels per day of ethane to the Mexico Complex for a period of 20 years at prices based on the highest reference between Mont Belvieu purity ethane or Henry Hub reference U.S. dollar-based international reference price of these feedstocks. Under this agreement, any daily amount rejected by Braskem Idesa must be purchased in installments in subsequent deliveries until the deficit has been resolved. This contract commenced in June 2015 will expire in 2035 and is renewable for three five-year periods, with prior notice at least two years prior to the expiration of the agreement that it intends to renew this agreement. Pemex TRI may terminate the contract in the event of: (1) a failure by Braskem Idesa to pay that continues for more than 180 days after notice, or (2) an emergency stoppage in operations or force majeure event that continues for more than 48 months.

Since July 2015, Braskem Idesa has been required to purchase, and Pemex TRI has been required to deliver, the minimum daily volume of ethane provided under the supply agreement.

Electricity

The Mexico Complex has its own power generation plant consisting of one gas turbine and two steam turbines, which generates more than 100% of the Mexico Complex’s energy consumption. In addition, the Mexico Complex is also connected to the high-voltage power grid of Comisión Federal de Electricidad (the Mexican government-owned power supplier) as a back-up power source and to sell excess power on the spot market. The Mexico complex generates all of its requirements of steam and its water requirements are supplied by the Comisión Nacional del Agua (the Mexican government-owned water commission) under an agreement that expires in 2029 and is subject to renewal.

In general, we believe that there are sufficient alternative sources available at reasonable prices for each of these other inputs used in our polyethylene production process such that the loss of any single supplier would not have a material adverse effect on our operations.

Sales and Marketing of Our Mexico Unit

Our Mexico Unit sells polyethylene products to approximately 300 customers in the Mexican market. We have a diversified product mix that allows us to serve a broad range of end users in several industries. The customers of our Mexico Unit generally are third generation petrochemical producers that manufacture a wide variety of plastic-based consumer and industrial goods.

Domestic Mexican Sales

In the first full year operation of our Mexico Complex since its start-up, we have been focused on the domestic market and obtaining the customer approval of our products. Another priority is to develop long-term relationships with our customers and, given the cyclical nature of the markets for our polyethylene products, we believe that we can strengthen customer loyalty during periods of reduced demand for polyethylene by providing a reliable source of supply to these customers during periods of high demand. We work closely with our customers to determine their needs, to provide technical assistance and to coordinate the production and delivery of our products.

Considering our Mexico Complex’s logistical infrastructure and logistics centers in different regions, we are able to project customer demand by region. Thus, we can anticipate and plan our production and logistics in order to make the products available on time and at the points of shipment. As our product portfolio can adjust to the nature of the demand of the Mexican market, we have greater flexibility to adapt and better serve the market.

In addition to direct sales of polyethylene to our customers, our Mexico Unit sells products in Mexico through independent distributors. Our Mexico Unit is served by distributors through which we distribute our products pursuant to formal agreements and spot market transactions.

We have selected our distributors based on their ability to provide full service to their customers, including the ability to prepare our products on a customized basis. These distributors sell our polyethylene products to manufacturers with lower volume requirements and are able to aggregate multiple orders for delivery to customers that would otherwise be uneconomical for us to serve. Furthermore, by serving smaller customers through a network of distributors, our account managers focus their efforts on delivering high quality service to a smaller number of large, direct customers.

Export Sales

The main focus of our Mexico Unit is to maintain our leading position in the Mexican market while continuing to export in order to manage the relationship between our production capacity and domestic demand for our products. We believe that our continued presence in export markets is essential to help manage any overcapacity in the Mexican market. The excess volume is exported to several regions such as North America, Asia and Europe, using our existing sales force and complementing our portfolio in those regions, together with products exported from Brazil. In order to use the already established Braskem sales channels in the United States and Europe, the strategy of exports of the Mexico unit production, for these regions, is to develop and retain customers, in order to seek a greater added value in exports, especially considering the competitive logistics for serving the United States. This new polyethylene complex reinforces our position with polyethylene customers worldwide, which enhances our position in North America.

Prices and Sales Terms

We determine the Mexican domestic prices for polyethylene by reference to North American export prices. Our customers in Mexico may pay in full on delivery or elect credit terms that require payment in full within up to 60 days following delivery.

Our Mexico Unit’s export sales consist of volumes to Asia, Europe and the United States through traders and distributors. Pricing is based on international spot market prices. We make all sales in these markets with letters of credit. As discussed under “—Export Sales” above, since the beginning of 2017, the Mexico Unit has been focused on export sales directly to customers in the United States and Europe, so the netback price of exports has been increasing.

Competition

We have the largest annual production capacity of polyethylene in Mexico. We compete in Mexico with a subsidiary of Pemex and with importers of polyethylene, primarily producers located in the United States and South America. We compete for export sales of our polyethylene products with producers from other countries in Latin America , the United States, Asia and Europe. Our export business is a commodities business and we compete with a variety of resin producers, some of which have greater financial, research and development, production and other resources than our company. Our competitive position in the export markets that we serve is primarily based on raw material costs, selling prices, product quality and customer service and support.

We are the leading producer of PVC in Brazil, based on sales volumes in 2017. As of December 31, 2017, our PVC production facilities had the second largest annual production capacity in Latin America. Our Vinyls Unit generated net sales revenue of R$3,066.9 million in 2017, or 5.0% of our net sales revenue of all reportable segments.

Our Vinyls Unit is the only vertically integrated producer of PVC in Brazil. Our PVC production is integrated through our production of chlorine, ethylene and other raw materials. Our Vinyls Unit also manufactures caustic soda, which is used by producers of aluminum, paper and chlorine.

In 2017, we had an approximate 53.1% share of the Brazilian PVC market, based on sales volumes of our Vinyls Unit.

The following table sets forth a breakdown of the sales volume of our Vinyls Unit by product line for the years indicated.

We own five vinyls production facilities. Two of our facilities are located in the Northeastern Complex, and three others are located in the State of Alagoas.

The table below sets forth for each of our primary vinyls products, our annual production capacity as of December 31, 2017 and annual production for the years presented.

The most significant direct cost associated with the production of PVC is the cost of ethylene, which accounted for 47.5% of our Vinyls Unit’s total cost of sales in 2017. Our Chemicals Unit supplies all of the ethylene required by our Vinyls Unit.

Electricity

Electric power is a significant cost component in our production of chlorine and caustic soda. Electric power accounted for 17.0% of our Vinyls Unit’s total cost of sales in 2017. Our Vinyls Unit obtains its electric power requirements from various generators under long-term power purchase agreements (see “Chemicals Unit—Supply Contracts and Pricing of the Chemicals Unit—Electricity”).

Salt

We used approximately 1,336,000 tons of salt during 2017. Salt accounted for 0.7% of our Vinyls Unit’s total cost of sales in 2017. We have exclusive salt exploration rights at a salt mine located near our Alagoas plant. We estimate that the salt reserves of this mine are sufficient to allow us to produce chlorine at expected rates of production for approximately 35 to 45 years. We enjoy significant cost advantages when compared to certain of our competitors due to the low extraction costs of rock salt (particularly compared to sea salt), and low transportation costs due to the proximity of the salt mine to our production facility.

Sales and Marketing of Our Vinyls Unit

There is a structural link between the PVC and caustic soda markets because caustic soda is a byproduct of the production of chlorine required to produce PVC. When demand for PVC is high, greater amounts of caustic soda are produced, leading to an increase in supply and generally lower prices for caustic soda. Conversely, when demand for PVC is low, prices for caustic soda tend to rise.

We make most of our sales of PVC and caustic soda directly to Brazilian customers without the use of third-party distributors. However, our Vinyls Unit maintains contractual relationships through five distribution centers that provide logistical support, located in Paulínia and Barueri, both in the State of São Paulo, Joinville in the State of Santa Catarina, Extrema in the State of Minas Gerais and Araucaria in the State of Paraná. In addition, we operate twelve warehouse facilities for PVC, on a non-exclusive basis, and six terminal tank facilities for caustic soda strategically located along the Brazilian coast to enable us to deliver our products to our customers on a “just-in-time” basis. Our Vinyls Unit develops its business through close collaboration with its customers, working together to improve existing products as well as to develop new applications for PVC. Our marketing and technical assistance groups also advise customers and potential customers that are considering the installation of manufacturing equipment for PVC end products.

In addition, our Vinyls Unit supplies the Brazilian market with emulsion PVC and other copolymers with higher value by imports from Colombia under a long-term contract with Mexichem. Our primary customers operate in the laminated, shoe and automobile sectors. These products represented 3% of our consolidated sales volume in 2017.

Prices and Sales Terms

We determine the domestic prices for our PVC resins with reference principally to the prices paid by third generation producers in Brazil for imports of PVC, which generally reflect the Northeast Asian spot market price. Delivery time, quality and technical service also affect the levels of sales of PVC resins. We establish our domestic price for caustic soda based on North American spot market prices. Approximately 64% of our caustic soda sales in 2017 were made pursuant to agreements that are generally for one- to three-year terms and may include minimum and maximum prices.

Competition

PVC

Unipar Carbocloro (formerly Solvay), or Unipar, and Braskem are the only two producers of PVC in Brazil. Unipar’s total Brazilian installed annual production capacity is 300,000 tons, compared to our annual production capacity of 710,000 tons. Unipar’s Brazilian production facilities are located in São Paulo, which is closer to the primary PVC market in Brazil than our facilities. However, we believe that our vertically integrated production capabilities, our modern PVC suspension plants, our strong relationship with our customers and our technical assistance programs enable us to make up for any competitive disadvantage due to distance and compete effectively with Unipar.

Braskem also competes with Unipar’s Argentina production facilities and other importers of PVC. Unipar has a PVC plant in Argentina in addition to its plants in Brazil. Imports accounted for approximately 22.6% of Brazilian PVC consumption in 2017. Domestically produced PVC is currently competitively priced with imported PVC, considering that our price is based on international market.

In addition, Braskem competes with other producers of thermoplastics that manufacture the same PVC products or substitutes for products in our PVC product line. Thermoplastic resins, principally polyethylene and polypropylene, are used in certain applications as substitutes for PVC. Wood, glass and metals also are used in some cases as substitutes for PVC.

Caustic Soda

The four largest Brazilian producers of caustic soda, including Braskem, accounted for 94.7% of Brazilian production in 2017. Our company and another international petrochemical company operate in this market throughout Brazil, while the other domestic producers of caustic soda generally operate on a local or regional basis. Imports accounted for 42.2% of Brazil’s total caustic soda consumption in 2017.

Our principal competitors in the caustic soda market elsewhere in South America are other international petrochemical companies operating in Brazil and producers located on the U.S. Gulf Coast.

Technology, Research and Development

Technology Licenses

Our Chemicals Unit uses various engineering process technologies under non-exclusive arrangements from a variety of sources for specific production processes. We have several non-exclusive agreements with a number of leading petrochemical technology licensors and companies, to use certain process technology and catalysts for our various Polyolefin units in all the regions where we have production plants. Some of the license agreements used by our Polyolefin Unit allow us to use the licensed technology in both existing and future plants. We have several non-exclusive agreements with leading petrochemical companies to use technology for our Vinyl Unit. If any of the arrangements or licenses under which we use third-party technology were terminated or are no longer available to us, we believe that we would be able to replace this technology with comparable or better technology from other sources.

Our Mexico Unit has improvements and technical service agreements with its licensors for technology updates and to support the Mexico Unit’s operations. Until 2026, we will pay royalties corresponding to the license fee value for HDPE units, while we paid a one-time license fee for our LDPE units.

We do not pay any continuing royalties under any of the arrangements or licenses used by our Chemicals Unit or our Vinyl Unit. Most of the license agreements used by our Polyolefins Unit or our USA and Europe Unit do not require us to pay any continuing royalties. Under the license agreements that require continuing royalty payments, we pay royalties on a quarterly basis based on the volume of the products produced using the licensed technology.

Research and Development

Our ability to compete in the markets that we serve depends on our ability to integrate new technologies developed by our company and third parties in order to lower our costs and offer new products. In addition, our relationships with our customers are enhanced by our ability to develop new products and customize existing products to meet their needs.

We develop technology at our research and/or development centers: (1) Innovation and Technology Center in Triunfo, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil; (2) Innovation and Technology Center in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States; (3) Renewable Chemicals Research Center in Campinas, São Paulo, Brazil; (4) Process Technology Development Center in Mauá, São Paulo, Brazil; (5) European Technical Center in Wesseling, North Rhein Westphalia, Germany; and (6) Mexican Technical Center in Nanchital, Vera Cruz, Mexico, where we develop new processes, products and applications for many market segments and which, as of December 31, 2017, collectively had 296 employees. Through these centers, we coordinate and conduct our research and development programs, which include the operation of (1) pilot plants, (2) catalysis, polymerization and polymer sciences laboratories, and (3) process engineering and research for renewable sources.

Braskem continues its efforts to develop solutions for products from renewable raw materials through internal projects and collaborations and partnerships with various third parties.

In November 2017, Braskem and Danish-based Haldor Topsoe, a world leader in catalysts and surface science, have signed a technological cooperation agreement to develop a pioneering route to produce monoethylene glycol (MEG) from sugar. With the agreement, Braskem seeks to expand its portfolio of renewable products to offer new solutions that complement its bio-based polyethylene marketed with the I'm green^TM seal.

Maintenance

Most of our maintenance is performed by third-party service providers. For example, we have contracts with Construtora Norberto Odebrecht, or CNO, a subsidiary of our controlling shareholder Odebrecht, Asea Brown Boveri Ltd., Cegelec Ltda., Rip Serviços Industriais S.A., Cl Engenharia Ltda. and other service providers to perform maintenance for our basic petrochemical plants in the Northeastern Complex and in the Southern Complex. We also perform some of our ordinary course maintenance with our small team of maintenance technicians, which also coordinate the planning and execution of maintenance services performed by third parties.

Chemicals Plants

Regular chemicals plant maintenance requires complete plant shutdowns from time to time, and these shutdowns usually take approximately 30 to 45 days to complete. We occasionally undertake brief shutdowns of the chemical operations at our basic petrochemical plants that do not materially affect our production output, primarily for maintenance purposes, catalyst regeneration and equipment cleaning. In addition, because we have two independent olefins units and two independent aromatics units at the Northeastern Complex and two independent olefins units at the Southern Complex, we may continue production of chemicals at these complexes without interruption, even while we perform certain maintenance services.

The next scheduled general maintenance shutdown of:

· the Southern Complex’s olefins 2 and aromatics 2 units occurred in 2018;

· the Northeastern Complex’s aromatics 1 and olefins 1 units in 2019;

· the Southern Complex’s olefins 1 and aromatics 1 units are scheduled to occur in 2020;

· the São Paulo Complex’s olefins and aromatics units are scheduled to occur in 2020; and

· the Northeastern Complex’s olefins 2 and aromatics 2 units are scheduled to occur in 2022.

Plants of Our Polyolefins, Vinyls and USA and Europe Units

We have a regular maintenance program for each of our polyolefins plants. Production at each of our polyolefins plants generally is shut down for seven to 20 days every two to three years to allow for regular inspection and maintenance. In addition, we undertake other brief shutdowns for maintenance purposes that do not materially affect our production of polyolefins. We coordinate the maintenance cycles of our polyolefins plants with those of our basic petrochemicals plants. While our chemicals facilities must be shut down for up to 30 days for maintenance, our polyolefins facilities may be shut down for shorter periods because these facilities are less complex to operate and maintain than our chemicals plants. Similarly, plants of our USA and Europe Unit attempt to coordinate their maintenance cycles with the routines of their largest suppliers.

We have a regular maintenance program for each of our vinyls plants. Our Camaçari and Alagoas PVC plants are generally shut down for 15 to 20 days every two years to allow for regular inspection and maintenance. Our caustic soda and chlorine plant in Alagoas shuts down once a year for three days of maintenance in different parts of the plant. Our caustic soda and chlorine plant in Camaçari does not require prolonged maintenance shutdowns and is shut down for two or three days each year.

Environmental Regulation

We, like other petrochemical producers, are subject to stringent federal, state and local environmental laws and regulations concerning human health, the handling and disposal of solid and hazardous wastes and discharges of pollutants into the air and water. Petrochemical producers are sometimes subject to unfavorable market perceptions as a result of the environmental impact of their business, which can have an adverse effect on their results of operations.

Our consolidated annual expenditures on environmental control were R$330.1 million in 2017, R$427.1 million in 2016 and, R$311.9 million in 2015 which included investments, waste and wastewater treatment, emissions management, environment licenses, environmental liabilities and other environmental expenditures.

Costs and capital expenditures relating to environmental, health or safety matters are subject to evolving regulatory requirements and will depend on the timing of the promulgation and enforcement of specific standards which impose the requirements.

Compliance with Environmental Laws in Brazil

The Brazilian government enacted an Environmental Crimes Law in 1998 that imposes criminal penalties on corporations and individuals causing environmental damage. Corporations found to be polluting can be fined up to R$50.0 million, have their operations suspended, be prohibited from government contracting, be required to repair damage that they cause and lose certain tax benefits and incentives. Executive officers, directors and other individuals may be imprisoned for up to five years for environmental violations.

Our operations are in compliance in all material respects with applicable Brazilian environmental laws and regulations currently in effect. Some environmental studies that we have commissioned have indicated instances of environmental contamination at certain of our plants. In addition, we and certain executive officers of our company and of our subsidiaries have received notices from time to time of minor environmental violations and are or have been subject to investigations or legal proceedings with respect to certain alleged environmental violations. These environmental issues, and any future environmental issues that may arise, could subject us to fines or other civil or criminal penalties imposed by Brazilian authorities. We are addressing all environmental issues of which we are aware, and we believe that none of these issues will have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition or results of operations.

Operating Permits

Under Brazilian federal and state environmental laws and regulations, we are required to obtain operating permits for our manufacturing facilities. If any of our environmental licenses and permits lapse or are not renewed or if we fail to obtain any required environmental licenses and permits, we may be subject to fines ranging from R$500 to R$50.0 million, and the Brazilian government may partially or totally suspend our activities and impose civil and criminal sanctions on our company or both.

Each State in which we operate has its own environmental standards and state authorities in each state have issued operating permits that must be renewed periodically. Additionally, all projects for the installation and operation of industrial facilities in the Northeastern Complex, Southern Complex, São Paulo Complex and Rio de Janeiro Complex are subject to approval by various environmental protection agencies, which must approve installed projects prior to their commencement of operations and must renew such approval periodically thereafter. State authorities have issued operating permits for all of our plants, as follows: the Northeastern Complex (State of Bahia); Southern Complex (State of Rio Grande do Sul), São Paulo Complex and Cubatão, Santo André, Mauá and Paulínia plants (State of São Paulo), Rio de Janeiro Complex (State of Rio de Janeiro) and our Alagoas plants (State of Alagoas). We are in possession of all necessary permits, and we have a management system in place assuring that the permits which will expire are submitted for renovation in a timely manner.

Industrial Waste

Companhia Riograndense de Saneamento, or Corsan, a state-owned sanitation company, operates an integrated system for liquid effluents treatment, or Sitel, in the Southern Complex. Sitel treats wastewater generated by our company and the other petrochemical producers at the Southern Complex at a liquid effluents treatment station located in the Southern Complex. This treatment station also includes a system for the collection of contaminated wastewater and disposal after treatment. We treat wastewater generated by our company at the Rio de Janeiro Complex at a liquid effluents treatment station located in the Rio de Janeiro Complex. This treatment station also includes a system for the collection and disposal of contaminated wastewater. Hazardous solid waste is co-processed in cement kilns or incinerated and other kinds of solid waste are disposed of in landfills at facilities approved by our company.

We treat wastewater generated by our company at the São Paulo Complex at a liquid effluents treatment station located in the São Paulo Complex. This treatment station also includes a system for the collection and disposal of contaminated wastewater. Hazardous waste generated at the São Paulo Complex is incinerated in cement kilns and other kinds of solid waste are disposed of in landfills.

In our Bahia facilities, all wastewater is transported to our wastewater treatment facility. Solid waste is incinerated in cement kilns or incinerators and the remaining waste is disposed of in landfills.

Additionally, we have a series of recycling programs that include recycling of solid waste and wastewater. We recycle or reuse 26.2% of the solid waste generated by our facilities and 22.9% of the water used in our production processes.

In our Alagoas Complex, organochlorines waste is incinerated producing steam and wastewater. All wastewater is treated at a treatment station located in the complex. Solid waste is separated and disposed of in landfills.

Asbestos

Our largest chlor-alkali plant located in Alagoas previously used asbestos cell technology to produce chlorine and caustic soda. Such technology can no longer be used in new petrochemical production facilities under Brazilian legislation and the global trend has been to ban this technology. As a result, in November 2016, we concluded our shift to newer diaphragm technology and banned asbestos technology from our plants.

Compliance with Environmental Laws in the United States

Our operations in the United States are subject to U.S. federal, state and local laws and regulations governing the discharge of effluents and emissions into the environment; the generation, storage, handling, management, transportation and disposal of hazardous waste, industrial waste and other types of waste; the use, storage, and handling of various types of products and materials; and the protection of human health, safety and the environment. In many instances, specific permits must be obtained for particular types of operations, emissions or discharges. For example, our facilities in Texas, Pennsylvania and West Virginia are required to maintain various permits relating to air quality and treatment of industrial wastewater, and to comply with regulatory requirements relating to waste management. We are in possession of necessary permits to operate our facilities. We believe that our operations in the United States are in compliance in all material respects with applicable U.S. federal, state and local environmental laws and regulations currently in effect.

As with the U.S. petrochemical industry generally, compliance with existing and anticipated laws and regulations increases the overall cost of operating our U.S. plants, including operating costs and capital costs to construct, maintain and upgrade equipment and facilities. These laws and regulations have required, and are expected to continue to require us to make, expenditures of both a capital and an expense nature.

The Clean Air Act, which was last amended in 1990, requires the United States Environmental Protection Agency, or the EPA, to set National Ambient Air Quality Standards, or the NAAQS, for pollutants considered harmful to public health and the environment. The Clean Air Act requires periodic review of the science upon which the standards are based and the standards themselves. NAAQS for ozone and fine particulate matter (referred to as PM2.5), promulgated by the EPA have resulted in identification of nonattainment areas throughout the country, including certain areas within Texas, Pennsylvania and West Virginia, where Braskem America operates facilities. As a result of these nonattainment designations by the EPA, state or local air pollution control agencies are required to apply permitting and/or control requirements intended to reduce emissions of ozone precursors (nitrogen oxides and volatile organic compounds), and fine particles (including PM2.5 precursors), in order to demonstrate attainment with the applicable NAAQS. Such requirements may include imposition of offset requirements, and could result in enhanced emission control standards. In addition, on August 24, 2016, the EPA finalized requirements for state and local agencies charged with the current PM2.5 NAAQS. These requirements could in turn translate into additional state-specific requirements to further reduce allowable emission rates for PM2.5 or its precursor pollutants. In October 2016, the EPA lowered the primary and secondary NAAQS for ozone from 0.075 ppm to 0.070 ppm. Such state-specific requirements would become applicable, if at all, following a multi-year process. Regulations implementing this change will likely not be promulgated for several years.

In addition to permitting and/or control requirements that may result from the implementation of the NAAQS at the state or local level, the EPA may promulgate new or revised federal New Source Performance Standards or National Emission Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants that would apply directly to certain facility operations and may require the installation or upgrade of control equipment in order to satisfy applicable emission limits and/or operating standards under these regulatory programs. The EPA's currently-proposed regulations in this area would not specifically apply to Braskem America's operations.

Additionally, there are various legislative and regulatory measures to address greenhouse gas emissions which are in various stages of review, discussion or implementation by Congress and the EPA. In October 2015, the EPA finalized new regulations (known as the Clean Power Plan) aimed at lowering greenhouse gas emissions from existing, new and reconstructed electric generating units. In February 2016, the Supreme Court stayed implementation of the Clean Power Plan pending judicial review. On October 16, 2017, the EPA proposed repealing the Clean Power Plan, but this proposal has not been finalized. While it is currently not possible to predict the final impact, if any, that these regulations may have on Braskem America or the U.S. petrochemical industry in general, they could result in increased utility costs to operate our facilities in the United States. In addition, future regulations limiting greenhouse gas emissions of carbon content of products, which target specific industries such as petrochemical manufacturing could adversely affect our ability to conduct Braskem America's business and also may reduce demand for its products. The EPA's currently-proposed regulations in this area would not specifically apply to Braskem America's operations.

Compliance with Environmental Laws in Mexico

Braskem IDESA in Mexico is subject to federal, state and local laws and regulations that govern the discharge of effluents and emissions to the environment; the generation, storage, handling, management, transportation and disposal of hazardous waste, industrial waste and other types of waste; the use, storage and handling of various types of products and materials; and the protection of human health, safety and the environment. Specific permits may be required for certain types of operations.

Ethylene and Aromatic Hydrocarbons Mixture production require permission of the Federal Commission for Sanitary Risks (COFEPRIS) related to risk management and public health, The Mexican legislation regulates the emission of particles, ozone, fixed sources and everything related to GHGs, There are regulations on water, effluent treatments and specific conditions for discharge of the effluent. Mexico operations comply with all federal, state and local environmental laws and regulations.

In Mexico, the Federal Attorney´s Office for Federal Environmental Protection (PROFEPA) regulates and verifies compliance with the Mexican Regulation and Permits through audits.

A voluntary agreement has been signed with the Ministry of Labor and Social Security (STPS), which regulates the work environment and public health in conjunction with the COFEPRIS and the Secretary of Health (SS).
Failure to comply with Mexican regulations may lead to economic and administrative penalties, including Operations shutdown in certain cases.

Compliance with Environmental Laws in Germany and the European Union

Our operations in Germany are subject to German federal, state and local laws and regulations governing the discharge of effluents and emissions into the environment and the handling and disposal of industrial waste and otherwise relating to the protection of the environment and waste management. Our operations in Germany are in compliance in all material respects with applicable German federal, state and local environmental laws and regulations currently in effect.

As with the petrochemical industry in the European Union generally, compliance with existing and anticipated German laws and regulations increases the overall cost of operating our European business, including operating costs and capital costs to construct, maintain and upgrade equipment and facilities. These laws and regulations have required, and are expected to continue to require us to make expenditures of both a capital and an expense nature.

At our Schkopau and Wesseling, Germany facilities, we are required to maintain air, radiation, waste water and waste management permits from the German government and local agreements relating to the treatment of industrial wastewaters. We are in possession of all necessary permits.

Furthermore, our Wesseling, Germany facility is subject to existing European GHG regulations and a cap and trade program relating to emissions. We have purchased sufficient carbon dioxide emissions permits for its operations until 2018/2019, provided it operates under normal business conditions. We will purchase any additional permits that may be required on the emission trade market. We are not aware of any new environmental regulations that would affect our European operations. Accordingly, we cannot estimate the potential financial impact of any future European Union or German environmental regulations.

In April 2018, our board of directors approved our policy on global sustainable development. Its objective is to encourage economic growth, environmental preservation and social justice by developing sustainable solutions related to chemical and plastic production. In connection with these goals, we have developed a three-pronged approach: (1) seek and develop sustainable sources and operations, (2) develop and deliver a portfolio of sustainable products and services, and (3) work with our clients to offer sustainable solutions that benefit society as a whole.

· São Paulo, Paulínia, Cubatão, Santo André and Mauá in the State of São Paulo;

· the United States in La Porte, Freeport and Seadrift, Texas, Marcus Hook, Pennsylvania, Neal, West Virginia;

For more information, see note 13 to our consolidated financial statements included elsewhere in this annual report.

Our principal executive offices are located in São Paulo in the State of São Paulo, and we have an administrative support office in the City of Salvador in the State of Bahia. We also have equity interests in investments located in other parts of the country. We own all our production facilities, but we generally rent our administrative offices.

The following table sets forth our properties as of December 31, 2017 by location of facilities, products produced and size of plant.

Type of Product or Service	Location of Facilities	Size of Plant
		(in hectares)(1)

Chemicals	Triunfo	152.8
Chemicals	Santo André	74.1
Chemicals	Camaçari	65.5
Chemicals	Duque de Caxias	53.0
Chemicals	Mexico	23.6
Polypropylene	Paulínia	39.7
Polyethylene	Triunfo	30.5
Polyethylene	Camaçari	24.5
Polyethylene	Cubatão	17.6
Polyethylene	Santo André	15.8
Polyethylene	Duque de Caxias	15.0
Polyethylene	Mexico	14.9
Polypropylene	La Porte, Texas	87.0
Polypropylene	Neal, West Virginia	27.1
Polypropylene	Mauá	15.8
Polypropylene	Duque de Caxias	15.0
Polypropylene	Camaçari	13.2
Polypropylene	Triunfo	10.0
Polypropylene	Marcus Hook, Pennsylvania	6.9
Polypropylene	Freeport, Texas	8.9
Polypropylene	Seadrift, Texas	2.5
Polypropylene	Schkopau, Germany	3.7
Polypropylene	Wesseling, Germany	26.0
Caustic soda/chlorine	Maceió	15.0
PVC/caustic soda/chlorine	Camaçari	12.6
PVC	Marechal Deodoro	186.7
Distribution Center	Vila Prudente/Capuava	3.2

We believe that all of our production facilities are in good operating condition. As of December 31, 2017, the consolidated net book value of our property, plant and equipment was R$29,761.6 million.

The following properties are mortgaged or pledged to secure certain of our financial transactions: (1) our chemicals plant and our polyethylene plant located in the Southern Complex; (2) our chlor-alkali plant and PVC plant located in the Northeastern Complex; (3) our chemicals plant and our polyethylene plant located in São Paulo Complex; (4) our chlor-alkali plant and PVC plant located in the State of Alagoas; (5) our chemicals plant, our polyethylene plant and our polypropylene plant located in the Rio de Janeiro Complex; and (6) our chemical plant and our polyethylene plants located in Mexico.

In addition to the policies described below for our Brazilian and international operations, we maintain other insurance policies for specific risks, including general and product liability, directors and officers liability coverage, workers’ compensation, marine cargo and charterer’s liability insurance, among others.

We believe that our insurance coverage is reasonable in amount and consistent with industry standards applicable to chemical companies operating globally.

We carry insurance for all our plants against material damage and consequent business interruption through comprehensive “all risk” insurance policies.

The “all risks” insurance program for our plants provides for a total replacement value of US$29.5 billion for property damage. This insurance program is underwritten through separate policies in Brazil, Mexico, the United States and Germany by large insurance companies. These policies are in place until April 2020.

Set forth is a table with additional information related to our all risk insurance policies.

(1) Includes coverage for acts of terrorism.

Our policies provide coverage for losses that arise from accidents caused by or resulting from fire, explosion and machinery breakdown, among others, and consequential business interruption, with maximum indemnity periods ranging from 12 to 33 months, depending on the plant and/or coverage.

As part of our program, we also have third-party liability insurances for our operations, which cover losses for damages to third parties caused by our operations and products, and include sudden environmental damage caused by pollution. In the USA, Germany and Mexico, Braskem has additional coverage for environmental liabilities and remediation activities such as clean-up costs. These policies have limits of US$50 million for Mexico and US$25 million for USA and Germany (coverage included in the General + Umbrella Liability policies).

New projects can be covered for Construction/Erection All Risks under the existing Property policies or through a standalone project-specific policy.

Compliance

We have adopted a Global Anti-corruption Policy, Global Compliance System Policy, Code of Conduct, and several internal normative documentation designed to guide our management, employees and counterparties and reinforce our principles and rules for ethical behavior and integrity conduct. We maintain an Ethics Line managed by a third party available for employees and non-employees. Every whistleblower complaint is investigated by Compliance team and submitted for evaluation by our Ethics Committee and/or Compliance Committee.

Following our discovery of vulnerabilities in our internal controls in connection with the Investigation, we have designed and implemented remediation efforts to improve and evolve our Global Governance and Compliance system, including a series of efforts designed to ensure that every vulnerability that permitted the occurrence of the material weaknesses in our internal control over financial reporting described in “Item 15. Controls and Procedures” is mitigated. As part of the Compliance Program, we have taken several actions to improve and strengthen the internal controls environment. Furthermore, we implemented a new set of controls in 2017 that improved the processes in connection with manual journal entries, monitoring of payments of commissions and ledger accounts. We have also taken actions to implement controls within the process of posting entries in the inventory and trade payable balance accounts for naphtha imports processed by Braskem Netherlands. Finnaly, we have improved the internal controls of monitoring of debits obligations in Braskem Idesa. We believe that these steps, taken together, provide additional supervision, approval and review of accounting transactions and enable us to better prevent and detect potential issues in our internal controls. For more information, see “Item 6. Directors, Senior Management and Employees—Directors and Senior Management” and “Item 15. Controls and Procedures.”

ITEM 4A. UNRESOLVED STAFF COMMENTS

Not Applicable.

ITEM 5. OPERATING AND FINANCIAL REVIEW AND PROSPECTS

The following discussion of our financial condition and results of operations should be read in conjunction with our audited consolidated financial statements as of December 31, 2017 and 2016 and for the three years ended December 31, 2017, included in this annual report, as well as with the information presented under “Presentation of Financial and Other Information” and “Item 3. Key Information—Selected Financial and Other Information.”

The following discussion contains forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties. Our actual results may differ materially from those discussed in the forward-looking statements as a result of various factors, including those set forth in "Cautionary Statement with Respect to Forward-Looking Statements" and "Item 3. Key Information-Risk Factors."

Our results of operations for the years ended December 31, 2017, 2016 and 2015 have been influenced, and our results of operations will continue to be influenced, by a variety of factors, including:

Our financial condition and liquidity is influenced by various factors, including:

We have prepared our audited consolidated financial statements as of December 31, 2017 and 2016 and for each of the years ended December 31, 2017, 2016 and 2015 in accordance with IFRS.

Our consolidated financial statements have been prepared in accordance with IFRS 10 (Consolidated Financial Statements).

We believe that our organizational structure as of December 31, 2017 reflected our business activities and corresponded to our principal products and production processes. As of December 31, 2017, we had five production business units and reported our results by five corresponding segments to reflect this organizational structure:

We have included a reconciliation of the results of operations of our segments, as they existed as of December 31, 2017, to our consolidated results of operations under “—Results of Operations” below.

The presentation of our financial condition and results of operations in conformity with IFRS requires us to make certain judgments and estimates regarding the effects of matters that are inherently uncertain and that impact the carrying value of our assets and liabilities. Actual results could differ from these estimates. In order to provide an understanding about how we form our judgments and estimates about certain future events, including the variables and assumptions underlying the estimates, and the sensitivity of those judgments to different variables and conditions, we have included comments related to the following significant accounting policies under IFRS:

· Impairment of property, plant and equipment and non-financial assets. Our goodwill based on expected future profitability as of December 31, 2017 was R$2,058.9 million. The recoverable value of property, plant and equipment and other noncurrent assets including intangible assets (other than goodwill based on expected future profitability) are reviewed for impairment whenever events or changes in circumstances indicate that the carrying amount may not be recoverable. The recoverable value of goodwill based on expected future profitability is reviewed for impairment on an annual basis. An impairment loss is recognized for the amount by which the asset’s carrying amount exceeds its recoverable amount. The recoverable amount is the higher of (1) an asset’s fair value less costs to sell; and (2) its value in use. For the purposes of assessing impairment, assets are grouped at the lowest level for which there are separately identifiable cash flows that can be cash-generating units or operating segments. Non-financial assets other than goodwill that suffered an impairment are reviewed for possible reversal of the impairment at each reporting date. Our impairment tests of goodwill consider the operations at (1) the Southern Complex in the Chemicals Unit, (2) the Polyolefins Unit and (3) the Vinyls Unit.

In October 2017, Braskem conducted an impairment test of the goodwill using the value in use method (discounted cash flow) and did not identify any loss, as shown in the table below:

(1) The carrying amount includes, in addition to goodwill, long-lived assets and working capital from each operating segment.

The assumptions adopted to determine the discounted cash flow are described in Note 3.4(b) of our audited financial statements. The WACC used was 12.33% p.a. and the inflation rate considered for perpetuity was 4.1%.

Given the potential impact on cash flows of the “discount rate” and “perpetuity”, Braskem conducted a sensitivity analysis based on changes in these variables, with cash flows shown in the table below:

The main assumptions used for projecting cash flows are related to the projection of macroeconomic indicators, international prices, global and local demand in the countries where Braskem has operational production plants.

Macroeconomic indicators are provided by a widely recognized consulting firm and include items such as: exchange, inflation and interest rates, among others.

Prices for key petrochemical products are obtained from projections made by an international consulting firm. However, final prices take into consideration meetings of specific internal committees and the knowledge of the Company’s experts in preparing the benchmarks for each market. In most cases, for the projected period, the internally projected prices were more conservative than those originally projected by the international consulting firm.

Similar to prices, global demand also is contracted from a specific consulting firm and, in the markets where the Company operates more directly, they consider additional variables for the composition of local demand.

In the Vinyls Unit, which main product is PVC, the projected cash flow exceeded the book value of assets by 76%. The main variables impacting this business are related to fluctuations in the exchange rate, international spreads (especially those related to the prices of naphtha, PVC and Caustic Soda) and Brazilian demand. Effective deviations of these important variables from the Company’s projections could lead to cash flows being lower than the value of the assets.

We did not record any impairment charges in the years ended December 31, 2017, 2016 and 2015. As of December 31, 2017, we do not believe that any of our cash generating units were at risk of impairment.

Our sales in Brazil represented 53.1% of our net sales revenue in the year ended December 31, 2017. Thus, we are significantly affected by economic conditions in Brazil. Our results of operations and financial condition have been, and will continue to be, affected by the growth rate of Brazilian GDP because our products are used in the manufacture of a wide range of consumer and industrial products.

The following table sets forth the growth rates of Brazilian GDP and domestic apparent consumption for polyethylene, polypropylene and PVC for the periods presented.

Brazilian GDP growth has fluctuated significantly, and we anticipate that it will likely continue to do so. Our management believes that economic growth in Brazil should positively affect our future net sales revenue and results of operations. However, continued recession or low growth in Brazil would likely reduce our future net sales revenue and have a negative effect on our results of operations.

In 2015, Brazil was affected by the continued political crisis, lower-than-expected GDP growth in China (6.9%, the lowest in 25 years), declines in international commodity prices and weakening currencies in emerging economies, led by the real. Key sectors in the Brazilian economy, such as services, construction and infrastructure, experienced a slowdown which affected the labor market by reducing income levels and consequently household spending and investment. According to the IBGE, Brazil’s GDP contracted 3.8% in 2015. As a result, Brazilian consumption volumes of thermoplastic resins declined by 3.2% for polypropylene, 3.8% for polyethylene and 16.0% for PVC.

In 2016, indicators for economic growth in Brazil were weaker than expected, with negative GDP growth for the year, primarily due to lower borrowing as a result of higher levels of debt held by households and businesses. These factors, combined with the persistent bottlenecks contributing to Brazil cost and the prolonged political and institutional crisis, affected the country’s economy, which resulted in lower demand for resins in the Brazilian market. As a result, Brazilian consumption volumes of thermoplastic resins declined by 2.3% for PVC and 1.3% for polyethylene.

In 2017 Brazilian economic indicators showed signs of a slow recovery. As a result, Brazilian consumption volumes of thermoplastic resins increased by 5.9% for polypropylene and 4.8% for polyethylene. PVC remained vulnerable to the effects of the contraction of the civil construction sector and consumption volumes declined by 1.9%.

The following table shows data inflation, interest rates and the U.S. dollar exchange rate for and as of the periods indicated.

PRESENTATION OF FINANCIAL AND OTHER INFORMATION
CAUTIONARY STATEMENT WITH RESPECT TO FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS
PART I
Item 1.	Identity of Directors, Senior Management and Advisors
Item 2.	Offer Statistics and Expected Timetable
Item 3.	Key Information
Item 4.	Information on the Company
Item 4A.	Unresolved Staff Comments
Item 5.	Operating and Financial Review and Prospects
Item 6.	Directors, Senior Management and Employees
Item 7.	Major Shareholders and Related Party Transactions
Item 8.	Financial Information
Item 9.	The Offer and Listing
Item 10.	Additional Information
Item 11.	Quantitative and Qualitative Disclosures About Market Risk
Item 12.	Description of Securities Other than Equity Securities
PART II
Item 13.	Defaults, Dividend Arrearages and Delinquencies
Item 14.	Material Modifications to the Rights of Security Holders and Use of Proceeds
Item 15.	Controls and Procedures
Item 16A.	Audit Committee Financial Expert
Item 16B.	Code of Ethics
Item 16C.	Principal Accountant Fees and Services
Item 16D.	Exemptions From the Listing Standards for Audit Committees
Item 16E.	Purchases of Equity Securities by the Issuer and Affiliated Purchases
Item 16F.	Change in Registrant’s Certifying Accountant
Item 16G.	Corporate Governance
Item 16H.	Mine Safety Disclosure
PART III
Item 17.	Financial Statements
Item 18.	Financial Statements
Item 19.	Exhibits

	Year Ended December 31,
	2017	2016	2015
	(thousands of tons)
Domestic sales:
Ethylene	523.6	511.9	485.8
Propylene	360.4	291.3	246.1
Cumene	199.8	194.5	206.0
Butadiene	183.8	198.5	220.1
BTX products(1)	644.6	677.0	631.5
Gasoline	925.9	745.1	449.7
Others	679.3	666.4	712.3
Total domestic sales of Chemicals	3.317.6	3,090.2	2,745.4
Total export sales of Chemicals	1,321.8	1,318.2	1,589.0
Total sales of Chemicals	4,639.4	4,408.4	4,334.5

	Year Ended December 31,
	2017	2016	2015
	(thousands of tons)
Ethylene	2,888.8	2,856.5	2,798.2
Propylene	1,041.1	1,023.1	986.4

	Annual Production	Production For the Year Ended December 31,
Primary Products	Capacity	2017	2016	2015
	(in tons)
Olefins:
Ethylene	3,952,000	3,518,658	3,459,861	3,357,007
Propylene	1,585,000	1,445,887	1,400,466	1,389,796
Butadiene	480,000	430,040	411,630	389,273
Aromatics:
BTX products(1)	1,367,000	977,184	1,000,489	981,570

	For the Year Ended December 31,
	2017	2016	2015
	(in millions of *reais*)
Net sales revenue (1):
Domestic sales	R$ 9,367.7	R$ 8,201.7	R$ 7,523.5
Export sales	4,182.5	5,572.3	4,944.2
	R$ 13,550.2	R$13,744.0	R$12,467.7

·	other factors identified or discussed under “Item 3. Key Information—Risk Factors.”

·	if we decide to expand our plants or construct new plants, we may do so based on an estimate of future demand that may never materialize or materializes at levels lower than we predicted.

·	if a key supplier is acquired or has a significant change in business, the production and sales of our systems and services may be delayed or adversely affected, or our development programs may be delayed or may be impossible to complete.

·	increased competition from domestic or foreign competitors and/or the emergence of new domestic or foreign competitors.

·	R$1,609.2 million of loans and financing that were subject to the London Interbank Offered Rate, or LIBOR.

·	our Vinyls Unit, which includes our production and sale of PVC and caustic soda. This segment accounted for net sales revenue of R$3,066.9 million, or 5.0% of our consolidated net sales revenue of all reportable segments, including net sales to our other business units.

·	specialties such as isoprene, dicyclopentadiene, or DCPD, piperylene, nonene, tetramer, polyisobutylene, or PIB, and hydrocarbon resins.

·	Petrobras may terminate the contract, without prior notice, in the event of our bankruptcy or liquidation.

	Annual Production	Production For the Year Ended December 31,
Plant	Capacity	2017	2016	2015
	(in tons)

United States	1,570,400	1,521,894	1,413,607	1,434,671
Germany	625,000	591,417	593,569	532,357

	For the Year Ended December 31,
	2017*	2016*	2015*
	(thousands of tons)
PVC	525.7	528.3	529.5
Caustic soda	407.6	442.5	435.7
Other(1)	103.7	112.1	114.5
Total domestic sales	1,037.0	1,083.0	1,079.7
Total export sales	89.5	122.7	65.4
Total Vinyls Unit sales	1,126.5	1,205.7	1,145.1


		Page

Policy / Region US$ bn	Value at risk - Property Damage	Combined Property Damage and Business Interruption Limit	Comments
Brazil	21.7	3.4	Limit increased from US$2 bn to US$3.375 bn.
Mexico(1)	4.4	2.9	Natural Hazard Limit increased from US$1.5 bn to US$2.9bn.
USA and Germany	1.8	0.5	Limit increased from US$250 million to US$500 million; Limit for flood, wind and named storm of US$300 million in the aggregate and US$200 million per event.

·	the requirement under Brazilian Corporate law and our by-laws that we pay dividends on an annual basis in an amount equal to at least 25% of our adjusted net income, unless our board of directors deems it inconsistent with our financial position and the decision of our board of directors is ratified by our shareholders.

·	Vinyls—This segment includes our production and sale of PVC and caustic soda.

	Allocated goodwill	Cash flow	Book value (with goodwill and work capital(1)	Cash flow / Book value
	(in thousands of reais)
CGU and operating segments:
CGU – UNIB – South	926,854	11,970,190	2,912,030	4.1
Operating segment – Polyolefins	939,667	26,654,836	7,766,269	3.4
Operating segment – Vinyls	192,353	5,091,859	2,895,428	1.8

	+0.5% on discount rate	–0.5% on perpetuity
	(in thousands of reais)
CGU and operating segments:
CGU – UNIB – South	11,327,443	11,485,194
Operating segment – Polyolefins	25,042,032	25,405,611
Operating segment – Vinyls	4,808,622	4,877,875

		December 31,
	2017	2016	2015	2014	2013
GDPgrowth / Reduction (1)	1.0%