Toyota and Honda to see further fall in April-June profits

(ICIS) -- Toyota Motor and other major Japanese automakers are expected to post a further decline in their financial performance in the second quarter of this year after a slump in production and profits during the first three months of 2011, analysts said on Thursday.

The twin natural disasters that struck northeast Japan on 11 March paralysed auto parts supply chains, triggering production shutdowns and delays as well as cancellation of orders. The operations of 40 auto parts manufacturers in Japan have been jeopardised by plant outages and power shortages following the earthquake, said a report by Zacks Equity Research.

The automobile industry is a large end-market for materials, such as polypropylene (PP), nylon, acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene (ABS), polyurethane (PU) flexible foam, synthetic rubber as well as paintings and coatings.

Toyota, the world's biggest automaker, said on 11 May that its net income for the first quarter of this year slumped to yen (Y) 25.4bn (USD 314m), compared with the Y112.2bn gain in the same period a year earlier. Sales during the period fell 12% year on year to Y4,642bn.

Meanwhile, Honda Motor posted a 27.6% year-on-year fall in net income during the first quarter of 2011 to Y44.5bn, while sales plunged 66.4% to Y2,213bn.

MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Export limits from North American and Chinese producers affected suspension PVC (PVC-S) imports to Russia, according to MRC DataScope. In April imports fell by 15% compared to March and made 36 KT. In March it was 43 KT.

Supplies of suspension PVC from North America reduced to 15 KT, the material that comes to the market was contracted in February-early March. In May a further reduction of resin supplies from USA is expected because of constant reduction of export quotations and growing export prices (above USD 200/mt within March-April).

Supplies of acetylene PVC from China have considerably reduced. In April total imports of resin reduced to 14 KT. Stable demand in the domestic market along with problems with railway vehicles are main reasons for reduction of imports. Terms of delivery breakdowns reach three weeks. Russian converters have already felt limited supplies of acetylene resin from China: there is a small deficit of offer of PVC with К=70 in the market.

MRC

(ICIS) -- Chemical producers along the Mississippi river may rely increasingly on trucks and railcars to move material because of high water and flooding, sources said on Tuesday. The river already has crested at Memphis, Tennessee, and it could crest on the lower Mississippi on 24 May. If water levels become too high, shipping could be prohibited on the river. As a result, chemical plants would have to rely on trucks and rail to receive feedstock and ship out product.

In fact, some trucks were freed up in Memphis, Tennessee, because of the flooding, Tapscott said. Miller Transporters expects more truck interest to emerge next week should the river crest.

Most likely, chemical distributors are already preparing for more traffic, said Matthew Glaser, director of member advancement and strategic communications for the National Association of Chemical Distributors (NACD).

The lower Mississippi is home to several chemical plants. Plaquemine and Baton Rouge, Louisiana, have plants of such companies as Georgia Gulf, Dow Chemical, Shintech, ExxonMobil, Formosa Plastics and Lion Copolymer.

MRC

(Reuters) - Taiwan's Formosa Petrochemical Corp is running its 540.000 barrels per day (bpd) refinery at around 87 percent capacity after a crude distillation unit (CDU) resumed production in late April following a planned maintenance, its spokesman said on Wednesday. It has also restored runs at its 2.93 million tonnes per year (tpy) naphtha cracking complex to full capacity after operational rates were slightly decreased due to squeezed margins. But it has not restarted one of its two residue desulphurising unit (RDS) which was damaged by a fire in July last year.

Without the RDS -- which removes sulphur -- Formosa needs to rely on light sweet crudes, which are more expensive that heavy crude oil. The privately-run firm operates three CDUs of equal capacity.

MRC

(ICIS) -- Japan may be looking at a sharp contraction in economic output in the second quarter, which will reflect the extent of the damage wrought by the 11 March disasters, analysts said on Tuesday. Its power supply problem has just been aggravated with the country's third biggest electricity operator, Chubu Electric Power, agreeing to a government request to shut its Hamaoka nuclear plant for safety reasons.

The Bank of Japan pointed to ⌠high uncertainty about the possible effects of the earthquake disaster on Japan's economy, in the minutes of early April monetary policy meeting that was released on Monday.

The Japanese economy may shrink by as much as 5% on a year-on-year basis in the June quarter as implementation of rolling blackouts in the aftermath of the 9.0-quake and tsunami in March has hit industries hard, said Gregory See, a Singapore-based economist at research firm Forecast.

The country's automotive manufacturers halted production for weeks after the disasters and are currently operating at reduced capacities. The same is true for some petrochemical facilities in the quake-hit areas.

MRC