Rockwood Holdings's CEO expects no upturn in the US housing market next year

(ICIS) -- Rockwood Holdings's CEO expects no upturn in the US housing market next year or the year after, he said on Wednesday. ⌠We are not optimistic about that for 2012 or 2013, said Seth Ghasemi, chief executive at the US-based specialty chemicals firm, in an earnings conference call.
Rockwood makes titanium dioxide (TiO2), a major ingredient in architectural paints and coatings and considered a good chemical indicator of the health of the US housing market.

Housing, in turn, is a large end-market for such chemical products as plastic pipe, insulation, paints and coatings, adhesives, roofing materials and synthetic fibres.

The American Chemistry Council (ACC) estimates that each new home built represents $16,000 (┬11,520) worth of chemicals and derivatives used in the structure or in the production of component materials.

While Rockwood's third-quarter sales of TiO2 rose 31%, Ghasemi said the jump stemmed from increased pricing because of higher raw material costs. Actual TiO2 volumes declined 17% from low demand.


MRC

(Bloomberg) -- Kuwait Petroleum Corp. offered to sell naphtha cargoes to Asia from December to November at almost double the premium of supplies for the same period this year, according to two people involved in the negotiations.

The Kuwait City-based company, the largest Middle East exporter of refined oil products to Asia, is offering Full-Range naphtha for December 2011 to November 2012 at $23.50 a metric ton above benchmark prices, according to the people, who asked not to be identified because the discussions are confidential. The state-owned company has been selling cargoes at $12 a ton over quotes for December 2010 to November 2011 and most recently agreed to receive an $18.50 premium for shipments from August 2011 to July 2012.

MRC

(Arabian oil and gas) -- Alujain Corporation said that its subsidiary National Petrochemical industrial Company (NatPet) has resumed operations at its polypropylene located in Yanbu Industrial city, following the technical problem that hit the plant on October 12. The company announced earlier this month that a technical defect in the dehydrogenation unit in polypropylene complex was the reason behind the shutdown.

Another technical outage caused the a net loss of US$24m equal to the production of 16,000 tonnes of polypropylene, in late September.

This is the third time this year that the company has faced technical issues. The company also announced earlier this year that its polypropylene plant faced a technical problem at the dehydrogenation unit on the 18th of January, with repair work taking five days. As a consequence of this shutdown, NatPet failed to produce 3,500 tonne of polypropylene worth $5 million.

MRC

(Trend) -- An installation to capture carbon dioxide emissions in the atmosphere is to be commissioned at the only methanol production plant in Azerbaijan in November next year, AzMeCo chairman Nizami Piriyev told journalists today.

Construction of the plant is expected to be completed later this year when startup work will begin taking from three to five months. Methanol production is scheduled to begin in April and the plant will reach its designed capacity of 560,000 tons in June 2012.

It is likely to be ready in seven months and commissioned in November next year. Due to this installation, methanol production in the country will be increased up to 720,000 tons per year. The total project cost is $360 million and funding has been found.

The methanol plant will be the only one in the South Caucasus and Central Asia and will be commissioned in 2012.

MRC

(Reuters) -- South Korea's LG Chem has bought second-half naphtha cargoes at a slight premium, reflecting a weaker market as stubborn sluggish demand for petrochemicals hits sentiment, traders said on Wednesday.

LG Chem, which traders said suffered a minor outage at its naphtha cracker in Daesan, bought a medium-range cargo each for second-half arrival at Yeosu and Daesan at premiums close to parity to Japan spot quotes on a cost-and-freight (C&F) basis.

The marginal premium levels were lower than what Samsung Total, YNCC and Honam paid between Oct. 13 and Oct. 17 at premiums of $1.25-$3.00 a tonne.

Traders said the 900,000-tonnes-per-year Daesan cracker encountered a compressor problem on Wednesday, forcing it to shut for two days. But LG Chem's spokesman said the cracker was operating normally after a two-hour repair to change a valve.

MRC