Exxon Mobil reported a better-than-expected increase in quarterly profit

(Reuters) - Exxon Mobil Corp reported a better-than-expected 53 percent increase in quarterly profit, helped by a lower tax rate and an improving world economy that sparked higher demand for fuel and chemicals.

The Irving, Texas-based company's exploration and production results were also lifted by higher oil prices, which climbed 12 percent from a year earlier to average around $85 per barrel in the fourth quarter.

Exxon reported a fourth-quarter profit of $9.25 billion, or $1.85 per share, compared with $6.05 billion, or $1.27 per share in the same quarter a year earlier.

Shares of Exxon, the world's largest publicly traded oil company, rose 1 percent in premarket trading to $79.81, up from Friday's New York Stock Exchange close of $78.99.

MRC

(ICIS) -- The Egyptian unrest has shaken the Middle East markets, with shares plunging in many countries in the region on Sunday. Meanwhile, the 192km Suez Canal has been operating as usual during the protests, with 45 to 50 ships passing through each day, a canal official told Reuters.

A company associate at Egyptian Petrochemicals Company (EPC) in Alexandria, Egypt, said that its refinery complex at Amerya was running ⌠as per normal, adding that email communications were still down on Monday.

EPC is a subsidiary of state-run oil firm Egyptian General Petroleum Corporation.

A Chinese polyethylene (PE) trader told ICIS that email and phone communications with an Egyptian producer had been down since Sunday. But any disruption in Egyptian PE and polypropylene (PP) supply would have limited impact as Egypt exports very little material to China, he said.

Egypt exported 9,351 tonnes of homopolymer polypropylene and 15,792 tonnes of high density polyethylene (HDPE) to China in 2010, according to China Customs data. These are 36% and 34% lower, respectively, than the 14,650 tonnes of homopolymer PP and 24,055 tonnes of HDPE exported in 2009, the data showed.

MRC

(prw) -- Packaging and insulation producer Novostrat has launched what it claims will be Europe's biggest polyethylene foam plant in the Polish city of Olszyna in Lower Silesia.

The company, based in Pabianice, Poland, plans to export its entire output to countries in Western Europe, including France and Germany. The extruder located its largest production unit to date in a redundant furniture factory in an area close to Poland's borders with Germany and the Czech Republic.

Novostrat, already a supplier of PE foam packaging in Poland to global computer giant Dell, will produce PE foam material at the new facility for construction thermal and acoustic insulation and flooring underlay as well as for packaging.

MRC

(prw) -- The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has expressed support for plastic bag bans in some parts of Hawaii. Plastic shopping bags are now banned from use in Maui and Kauai counties.

⌠The leadership shown by the counties of Maui and Kauai in banning these bags will help keep their environments pristine, said Jared Blumenfeld, EPA's San Francisco-based regional administrator for the Pacific Southwest.

⌠This will not only decrease the amount of plastic in the counties, but it will reduce the number of bags that end up in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch - an enormous area of floating plastic waste.

The County of Maui and Kauai join American Samoa in banning plastic shopping bags in the Pacific area. Other coastal cities in California, Oregon, Texas and North Carolina have already banned the use of the disposable shopping bags.

MRC

(ICIS) -- Spot polysilicon material in China is expected to fetch higher prices, following stronger deals just days before the Lunar New Year, as a burgeoning domestic solar market saps supply, traders said on Monday.

A recent 20-tonne cargo was done at yuan (CNY) 700,000/tonne ($106/tonne), or equivalent to $90.40/kg (┬66.90/tonne) ex-works, up from a previous spot deal that was sealed at CNY630,000/tonne, or equivalent to $81.70/kg ex-works, traders said.

Meanwhile, contract polysilicon deals ranged from $81-82/kg in China, they said. The bulk of polysilicon deals were agreed on a term basis, leaving spot supply scarce at a time of robust demand from solar module makers in China, traders said.

Polysilicon is the raw material used to make cells in solar panels.

The Lunar New Year will start on Thursday, with businesses across China closing for the festive holidays until next week.

MRC