Westlake Chemical Q3 net income falls

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Westlake Chemical Corp. reported a decline in its third-quarter profit to USD167.8 million or USD1.25 per share from USD170.3 million or USD1.27 per share last year, said Rttnews.

The company's earnings were affected by Westlake Chemical Partners formation and initial public offering costs and Vinnolit acquisition-related costs of USD21.6 million, after tax, an elevated effective tax rate and several unplanned outages.

On average, 10 analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected earnings of USD1.56 per share for the quarter. Analysts' estimates typically exclude special items.

Quarterly sales rose to USD1.25 billion from USD1.00 billion last year, while analysts were looking for sales of USD1.19 billion.

The sales growth was mainly attributable to sales contributed by Vinnolit, which the firm had acquired in July.

Westlake Chemical Corporation is a manufacturer and supplier of petrochemicals, polymers and building products with headquarters in Houston, Texas. The company's range of products includes: ethylene, polyethylene, styrene, propylene, caustic, VCM, PVC resin and PVC building products including pipe and specialty components, windows and fence.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Russian importers of polyethylene terephthalate (PET) increased their October costs for PET chips purchasing in foreign markets because of the fall of the rouble, according to ICIS-MRC Price report.

Asian material entered the Russian PET market in October, which was bought at USD1,350-1,410/tonne CIF Novorossiysk, excluding VAT. Subject to customs clearance (given the rouble exchange rate from Rb41 to Rb42.5 per USD1) and the payment of VAT, the cost of procurement of such chips could have been Rb68,000-73,500/tonne CPT, including VAT, said MRC analyst Igor Gryshchenko.

Russian companies significantly reduced their purchasing in Asia on the back of the rouble devaluation and large PET stocks in September. A market source said lower September purchasing had led to a decrease in PET chips imports in October.

October spot prices of Russian PET were in the range of Rb61,500-63,000/tonne CPT Moscow, including VAT. Imports are expected to further drop in November and December on the back of the overall decline in PET chips consumption in Russia and the rouble devaluation.

This week's PET prices went down in Asia. Export prices were at USD1,100-1,130/ton FOB Shanghai.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Chevron Phillips Chemical on Tuesday unveiled a new study to expand its low viscosity polyalphaolefins (PAO) capacity by 10,000 tpy of capacity at its Cedar Bayou plant in Baytown, Texas, as per Hydrocarbonprocessing.

Currently, its low viscosity PAO capacity at its Cedar Bayou plant is 48,000 tpy.

Additionally, the company has filed the necessary environmental notifications with the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ). Final project approval would be sought in the second quarter of 2015, and project completion is targeted for 2016.

"This proposed expansion will help us to meet our increasing customer demand for sustainable products," said Miles Oberton, global business manager of polyalphaolefins for Chevron Phillips Chemical.

"PAOs provide energy efficient solutions to meet higher performance requirements, particularly in automotive and industrial applications," he added.

Chevron Phillips Chemical is a leader in the development and production of PAOs, marketed under the brand name Synfluid PAO, which includes both high and low viscosity PAOs. Chevron says the Synfluid PAOs are well-suited for a variety of automotive and industrial applications including gear oils, greases and automotive lubricants.

As MRC reported earlier, in July 2014, Chevron Phillips Chemical started construction of its 100,000-tpy expansion of normal alpha olefins (NAO) capacity at its Cedar Bayou plant. The NAO project is expected to be complete in July 2015 and utilizes Chevron Phillips Chemical’s proprietary NAO technology.

Normal alpha olefins are used as a feedstock for PAO production.

Chevron Phillips Chemical, headquartered in The Woodlands, Texas (north of Houston), US,l is one of the world’s top producers of olefins and polyolefins and a leading supplier of aromatics, alpha olefins, styrenics, specialty chemicals, piping, and proprietary plastics. Chevron and Phillips 66 each own 50% of Chevron Phillips Chemical.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Anti-aging remains a main focus in personal care business. This also applies to France, one of the most important cosmetic markets in the world. Therefore, BASF have presented new ingredients that answer to this market trend and contribute to skin rejuvenation and sun protection, as per the company's press release.

One of the main beauty secrets to keep an ageless look is to maintain the first shield of the body healthy and young: the epidermis. A young epidermis is dense, thick and its major components are continuously regenerated. With age, the epidermal innervation decreases and this depletion is sufficient to cause epidermal thinning. With Epigenist - BASF’s new active ingredient - the epidermis is re-innervated and regains the quality of its youth. When applied on the skin, it reverses the natural degradation of nervous fibers and their growth restarts, counterbalancing the time passing by.

With age, epidermis also loses its integrity and structure, which causes blemishes that appear on its surface. As BASF experts discovered recently, the integrity of the epidermis can be restored, if keratinocytes in the epidermis are enabled to differentiate in an optimal way. New and smoother skin appears as fine lines and visible pores fade. Indispensable to the differentiation of keratinocytes is LOX (lysyl oxidase), a key protein that decreases with age. LOX-AGE - a skin relief perfector developed by BASF - is capable of restoring the expression of LOX to a similar level as in young skin.

Over the decades, the purpose of a sunscreen has shifted from just tanning without sunburn to prevention of premature skin-aging and skin cancer in addition. As a consequence, designing and manufacturing a sunscreen has become more and more complex. To overcome this complexity, BASF has developed a sunscreen concentrate that turns into a sunscreen just by adding water: Uvinul Easy is a transparent, oil based concentrate with UV filters and emulsifiers. The addition of water at a constant temperature with moderate stirring leads to a spontaneous formation of a white oil-in-water emulsion.

As MRC informed before, in April 2014, BASF, the world's largest petrochemical major, announced that it had developed new ingredients and innovative concepts for the personal care market. Driving forward the development of the brand Care CreationsTM, the company is taking a more and more science based approach to explore consumer needs: the focus is on a validated typology system with which users can define different consumer personalities.

BASF is the leading chemical company. It produces a wide range of chemicals, for example solvents, amines, resins, glues, electronic-grade chemicals, industrial gases, basic petrochemicals and inorganic chemicals. The most important customers for this segment are the pharmaceutical, construction, textile and automotive industries.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) - The sharp decline of oil prices resulted in a decrease in export prices for polyvinyl chloride (PVC) in the US, the prices are also under a seasonal factor. As a consequence, PVC prices for November delivery in the markets of the CIS countries were reduced to the level of USD940-960/tonne, according to ICIS-MRC Price Report.

The decline of oil prices has continued since July this year. Low prices for polymer feedstock amid seasonally weaker demand made many producers to go for the price reduction. PVC producers from the United States were no exceptions.

Export PVC prices for November delivery in the CIS countries were cut below the level of USD950/tonne, CFR.
Negotiations for November shipments of US PVC in the CIS markets began in mid-October; many suppliers announced prices in the range of USD970-990/tonne CFR.

But November prices, because of the sluggish demand were reduced to USD940-960/tonne CFR. Russian companies have refrained from the purchases of US resin because of a serious rouble devaluation and the better PVC supply from the local producers.

Belarusian companies have been oriented for European PVC this week, as prices for Russian PVC increased this year. Ukrainian companies also were not in hurry to buy November PVC. In part, this situation resulted from the weakening economy in the country, as well as expectations of price cuts in Europe. Discussion for November prices began this week.
MRC