June 20 (Reuters) - German speciality chemicals maker Lanxess slashed its second-quarter and annual core profit forecast, saying it saw no demand recovery in June as customers continued to destock, sending its shares plunging 16% to a three-year low on Tuesday.

Weak demand, especially in the construction and electronics industries and from consumer-related products, along with customer destocking had spilled into the second quarter from the first and were ongoing, the company said in a statement late on Monday after the market close.

"The demand recovery we originally expected in the second half is not yet visible – neither in China nor in other meaningful end markets," CEO Matthias Zachert said in the statement.

Lanxess now expects earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, amortisation and exceptional items of around 100 million euros ($109 million) in the second quarter.

The company, which makes high-end speciality chemicals such as additives, lubricants, flame retardants and plastics, had previously targeted core profit "roughly at the level" of the first-quarter's 189 million euros.

For 2023, Lanxess sees EBITDA pre-exceptionals between 600 million and 650 million euros, versus a prior forecast of 850 million to 950 million euros.

Shares of Lanxess' German peers Wacker Chemie, Evonik, BASF, and Covestro were caught in its downdraft, falling between 2-5%.

Inflation and rising interest rates have triggered a global downturn, which the chemical industry felt early on as it struggled with high energy costs, the German chemical industry body VCI chief Wolfgang Große Entrup said in an e-mailed response to Reuters queries.

"Our industry needs affordable energy prices to be able to compete internationally," he added.

Lanxess' Zachert also said that business was "massively impacted" by disadvantageous conditions in Germany, including high energy prices and bureaucracy.

However, industry peer Covestro told Reuters that the destocking had already passed through at the end of last year and the firm confirmed its upgraded April guidance.

Sector giant BASF declined to comment on any potential guidance update, but pointed to CEO Martin Brudermueller's gloomy comments in April when he said: "Don’t expect too much from Q2. It is a challenging quarter".

($1 = 0.9165 euros) (Reporting by Linda Pasquini, Patricia Weiss and Bartosz Dabrowski, writing by Andrey Sychev; Editing by Milla Nissi and Emelia Sithole-Matarise)