shares of eastman chemical co declined 62 to 8611 friday after the company said it faced lower demand and other challenges in the fourth quarter that weighed on sales sales declined to 237 billion from 269 billion the year prior analysts polled by factset had expected 243 billion pershare earnings came to one cent compared with 281 a year ago adjusted earnings per share were 89 cents below the 125 analysts were expecting chief executive mark costa said the company faced lower demand in key end markets and geographies during the period as well as more customer inventory destocking and limited benefit from lower raw material and energy costs he said aggressive inventory destocking is expected to mostly end in the first quarter followed by modest volume recovery in the back half of the year eastman chemical is also aiming to reduce manufacturing supply chain and nonmanufacturing costs by a total of more than 200 million in 2023 net of inflation mr costa said the company expects to grow adjusted pershare earnings in 2023 by between 5 and 15 excluding a roughly 75cent pension headwind