Westlake Chemical increased Q4 net income up 7.2%

МОSCOW (MRC) -- Westlake Chemical Corp. (WLK ) reported that fourth-quarter net income increased to a record USD183.29 million or USD1.37 per share from USD170.3 million or USD1.27 per share in the prior-year quarter, said the producer.

Results for the latest quarter include a negative impact of USD0.03 per share, as a result of an impairment of an equity investment. On average, 10 analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected the company to report earnings of USD1.38 per share for the quarter.

Sales for the quarter increased to USD1.14 billion from USD951.63 million in the same quarter last year, while analysts were looking for sales of USD1.18 billion.

The group’s income from operations stood at $302.4m in the fourth quarter compared with $257.6m in the same period in 2013, primarily due to higher integrated vinyls margins, largely because of "lower feedstock costs resulting from the expansion and conversion of its Calvert City, Kentucky ethylene plant from propane to ethane feedstock."

For the whole year, net income in 2014 was USD678.5m, representing an increase of USD68.1m from 2013 net income. The company said net income was negatively impacted by costs aggregating to approximately USD26.0m related to Westlake Partners' initial public and the Vinnolit acquisition, and the non-recurring state tax items which increased the 2014 tax provision by USD14.8m.

Net sales of USD4.42bn in 2014 increased from USD3.76bn reported in 2013. This increase was primarily due to sales contributed by Vinnolit and Westlake’s North American Specialty Products (NASP) PVC pipe business, higher sales prices for most major products and higher ethylene, caustic and polyethylene sales volumes.

Westlake Chemical Corporation is an international 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 producers of suspension polyvinyl chloride (SPVC) plan to increase contract prices for March delivery by Rb4,000-5,000/tonne, compared with the level in February, according to ICIS-MRC Price Report.

Negotiations on Russian PVC for March delivery have begun this week. Expectedly producers aimed to increase contract prices by Rb4,000-5,000/tonne on the back of the shortage of imported material.

Contracts for Russian SPVC for March delivery were discussed in the range of Rb58,000-60,000/tonne CPT Moscow, including VAT. While the February deals in most cases were done in the range of Rb54,000-55,000/tonne CPT Moscow, including VAT.

Converters reported that they had to accept further price increase because of the imports shortage. Russian rouble strengthened against the dollar in February, which led to a slightly decrease in prices of imported PVC. In particular, with the new exchange rate of the dollar the price for Chinese acetylene PVC with delivery to the central part in Russia was about Rb66,000/tonne, including VAT, which was still much higher than even the March price level for Russian PVC.

Demand for SPVC improved in March on the back of building up stock inventories of "inexpensive PVC." This trend began back in January and February, when the volume of purchases several times exceeded the volumes of processing.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- RT Global Resources, a unit of a state-owned Russian company whose head is subject to European Union sanctions, won a contract to build an oil refinery in Uganda, said Hydrocarbonprocessing.

RT Global beat a group led by South Korea’s SK Engineering and Construction Co. after both made final offers in January, Uganda’s Kampala-based Energy Ministry said on Tuesday in an e- mailed statement. The project could cost USD4 billion, the ministry said in November.

The government will start negotiations next month with RT Global on a project that includes a 205-kilometer (127-mile) oil-product pipeline. The winning bidder will hold a 60% stake in the 60,000-bpd refinery, while Uganda has the option of selling part of its 40% interest to the neighboring states of Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda and Burundi.

"The objective of these negotiations is to conclude the project agreements to the satisfaction of government and the lead investor," Fred Kaliisa-Kabagambe, the energy ministry’s permanent secretary, said in the statement. A joint-venture between the government and the RT Global-led group will organize project finance and engineering, the ministry said.

Other companies in the group include Telconet Capital, VTB Capital, Tatneft JSC and GS Engineering & Construction Corp., the government said. Sergei Chemezov, CEO of Rostec Corp., which controls RT Global, was added to a list in September of those people affected by EU sanctions against Russia.

Tullow Oil, China’s Cnooc, and Total are jointly developing an estimated 6.5 billion bbl of resources near Uganda’s border with the Democratic Republic of Congo. Output from the fields may start by 2018, according to the government.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Denki Kagaku Kabushiki Kaisha (Denka) is in plans to shut its styrene monomer (SM) plant for maintenance turnaround, as per Apic-online.

A Polymerupdate source in Japan informed that the plant is likely to be shut in Q1, 2016. The duration of the shutdown could not be ascertained.

Located at Chiba in Japan, the plant has a production capacity of 270,000 mt/year.

As MRC reported earlier, in 2013, Denka, in order to accelerate business development to meet market demand, reorganized six business divisions into four units and renamed some of its departments.

Thus, the former Electronic Materials, Styrene, Chemicals, Cement and Special Cement Additives, Living and Environmental Products and Medical Sciences Divisions were transformed into the Elastomers & Performance Plastics, Infrastructure & Inorganic Materials, Electronics & Innovative Products and Life Sciences & Environment Products business units.

In addition, the Elastomers & Acetylene Black Dept. was renamed the Organic Chemicals Dept., the Agri-Products Dept. is now the Fertilizer Dept., and the Adhesives & Solutions Dept. is the Tapes & Adhesives Dept.
MRC

МОSCOW (MRC) -- Thailand’s PTT Group recorded a net loss of THB 26.6 bn (USD816.6 mln) in Q4 2014 and took an impairment charge of THB 36.7 bn on assets owned by its subsidiary PTT Exploration and Production (PTTEP), said Interfaxenergy.

The results marked a downturn for PTT, after posting net profits in Q3 2014 and Q4 2013.

The NOC’s gas sales revenue edged up by 0.5% from Q3 to THB 141.2 billion in Q4, because of an increase from its PTT LNG unit, which runs the Map Ta Phut terminal.

PTTEP’s impairment came from its Australasian unit, which dropped plans for the Cash Maple FLNG plant offshore Australia, and from the effect of the oil price on the Marina Oil Sands project in Canada (formerly known as the KKD project).

As MRC reported earlier, last year, Indonesian state-owned energy company Pertamina signed an agreement to purchase petrochemical products from Thailand’s PTT Global Chemical. The agreement serves as a pre-marketing strategy for Pertamina and PTT’s joint Indonesian petrochemical business. Under the agreement, PTT will deliver at least 5,000 tonnes of polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP) products each month to Pertamina for sale in Indonesia.

PTT Global Chemical is a leading player in the petrochemical industry and owns several petrochemical facilities with a combined capacity of 8.45 million tonnes a year.
MRC